The DidacheTeaches: The assembly appoints bishops and deacons
c. 100 AD · Didache 15
So appoint for yourselves bishops and deacons who are worthy of the Lord—men who are gentle, not money-loving, truthful, and tested. For they also minister to you the ministry of the prophets and teachers. Do not look down on them, then, for they are your honored ones, along with the prophets and teachers.
So you must align yourselves with the mind of the bishop, as you are already doing. Your council of elders, worthy of its name and worthy of God, is fitted together with the bishop as strings are fitted to a lyre. Because of this, in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung.
Let the bishop preside in the place of God, and the council of elders in the place of the council of the apostles, and let the deacons, who are most sweet to me, be entrusted with the service of Jesus Christ, who before the ages was with the Father and appeared at the end.
All of you follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and follow the council of elders as you would the apostles. Respect the deacons as God's command. Let no one do anything that pertains to the church without the bishop.
It is good for us now to come to our senses, while we still have time to repent and turn to God. It is good to know God and the bishop. Whoever honors the bishop has been honored by God.
When you submit to the bishop as you would to Jesus Christ, it is clear to me that you are not living in a merely human way. You are living according to Jesus Christ, who died for us so that by believing in his death you might escape death itself.
In the same way, let everyone respect the deacons as they would Jesus Christ, just as they should also respect the bishop, who is a pattern of the Father, and the council of elders as the council of God and as a bond of the apostles. Without these, a church is not called a church.