Presbyterian church governance distinguishes two kinds of elder serving together on a congregation's session, its local governing body: the teaching elder, an ordained minister responsible for preaching and the sacraments, and the ruling elder, a layperson elected by the congregation to share in the church's spiritual oversight and governance without necessarily possessing formal theological training or performing sacramental functions. This shared eldership reflects Presbyterianism's foundational conviction, developed particularly by John Calvin and his followers, that church government should rest with a plurality of elders acting collegially rather than with a single bishop or, at the opposite extreme, with the whole congregation acting directly, a middle position between episcopal and purely congregational polity that gives the tradition its name, from the Greek presbyteros, elder.
Ruling elders, once ordained, typically serve renewable terms rather than holding office for life, and Presbyterian denominations vary in whether that ordination is understood as permanent, meaning a former active elder retains the underlying ordained status even after rotating off active session service, a question that has occasioned real debate within different Presbyterian bodies over the exact theological weight the office of ruling elder carries.