Continuing with the idea of how the local church should be ordered, we see a correlation with how a family unit should function.
First we have the parents, mother and father. They are responsible for bringing their children to maturity. Children at different ages have different levels of maturity. When children reach adulthood, they often become as mature as their parents.
In the local church, we have elders – these are the bishops and deacons. They are responsible for bringing the saints in their church to spiritual maturity. There are often those in their church that are as spiritually mature as the bishops and deacons, while there are many at different levels of spiritual maturity.