Answer: Paul told them to serve as overseers, (verse
2).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
Overseer, Bishop (Episcopos): look upon; visit, care
for. The term "overseer" describes the
elders' relation to the church. It literally means
"to look out over." An overseer is "one who
is charged with the responsibility of seeing that all under his
charge do their work and do it rightly." An overseer or
bishop occupies the same relation to the church in regard to
authority as a foreman to his group of workers. He is not
their owner, he doesn't make the rules. Neither does
the elder. Christ is the lawgiver. Elders/Overseers see
that they are carried out.
From the NIV Bible commentary:
In the Greek culture the word was used of a presiding
official in a civic or religious organization. Here it refers
to a man who oversees a local congregation. The equivalent
word from the Jewish background of Christianity is
"elder." The terms "overseer" and
"elder" are used interchangeably in Acts 20:17,
28; Titus 1:5-7; 1 Peter
5:1-2. The duties of an overseer were to teach and
preach (1 Timothy 3:2; 1 Timothy 5:17),
to direct the affairs of the church (1 Timothy 3:5;
1 Timothy 5:17), to shepherd the flock of God
(Acts 20:28), and to guard the church from error
(Acts 20:28-31).
Acts 20:28: "Keep watch over
yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you
OVERSEERS. Be SHEPHERDS of the church of God, which He bought
with His Own blood."
Philippians 1:1: "Paul and Timothy,
servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at
Philippi, together with the OVERSEERS and
deacons..."
1 Timothy 3:1-2: "Here is a
trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an OVERSEER,
he desires a noble task. Now the OVERSEER must be above
reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable, able to teach..."
Titus 1:5-7a: "The reason I [Paul]
left you [the evangelist, Titus] in Crete was that you might
straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint ELDERS in every
town, as I directed you. An ELDER must be blameless, the
husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not
open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an
OVERSEER is entrusted with God's work..."
