Titus 1:5

‘I left you in Crete for this reason, that you should set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave you charge.’

Paul begins by pointing out to Titus why he left him in Crete. It was so that he could go among the churches on the island (there would probably be a number of house churches in each city and town) and set things in order, where there was any lack. Especially he had noted that there was not an established body of elders in every city. (Crete had been called ‘the island of a hundred cities’, and to begin with the churches might have been small). Thus on leaving Crete he had charged Titus to appoint such elders, where there were none, and one of the purposes of his letter was in order to give guidance in respect of this.

Eldership was at that time the method of overseeing the churches. Compare here how in Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas had ‘appointed elders in every church’ while in Acts 20:17 Paul called to him the elders of the church at Ephesus when he was passing through the area. Furthermore the synagogues were run by elders, and it had been the natural pattern for the Jewish church to follow, both in Jerusalem (compare Acts 15:0) and when the church began to separate from the synagogues. It would therefore have been a natural type of organisation for Paul to follow. Thus this letter portrays the system that we would have expected at this comparatively early date.