Worship Leadership In the New Testament

The emergent New Testament church did not have the same clearly defined offices of leadership as did the worship of Israel. However, the functions of family head, prophet, priest, and king are summed up in Christ, who through the Spirit leads the church, the community of the new covenant, in its worship of almighty God. Family Heads, Elders, and Worship The Christian movement expanded largely through the conversion of heads of families, who, in turn, led their entire households in baptism into the faith of Christ. Unlike the rampant individualism of the modern Western world, Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures of the New Testament era made commonplace the conversion of whole families, such as those of Cornelius (Acts 10:24-48) and the jailer at Philippi (Acts 16:27-34). Following their Old Testament counterparts, family heads made provision for the worship needs of their households; that the New Testament church met in private homes no doubt encouraged this responsibility. In the Gospe…