The Stratified Leadership Model of the First-Century Christian Church

This research work aims to present a solution to the problem of withering Christian congregations present in modern Christian churches by way of expounding the doctrine that Jesus or his apostles promoted, as displayed in the four canonical Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, or the New Testament epistles. This study presents factual information showing that the doctrine and arrangement of leaders that developed within the first-century church may have been overlooked and lost by the wayside of history in favor of established traditions. Paul declared his purpose for visiting the church believers in Rome was not to collect money or build houses of worship but so that their lives might manifest spiritual fruit. Following that example, improving the spiritual quality of their people's lives should be the primary goal of all Christian ministers. The majority of this work will conduct a careful exegesis of selected passages from the New Testament, which focus on the leadership model utilized by the first-century church. This study presents in detail the stratified leadership model of the early times in such a fashion that any modern church might replicate its design.