LEADERSHIP IN CHURCH

Though used in many ways in various Church settings today, Biblically, "bishop" is from the Greek, "episkopē", from epi (over) and skopeo (look or watch); which simply means "overseer". In simplest terms a bishop is a leader overseeing a group of people or a function in church. So, for instance the overseer of the music unit in church who may in our days be called MD, is the bishop of the musicians. The size of a group could be a whole local assembly or a cell of two or three brethren. Though used interchangeably with "elder", the latter tends to describe the degree of maturity of the leader, while bishop deals more with the oversight assignment or work. The beautiful thing about oversight duties in church is that it is divine (Acts 20:28) and seeing it that way changes a lot.