Bible query on Revelation: Why seven candlesticks that are churches? What does it mean to...?

Since all true Christians are to serve as illuminators, congregations of God’s people are appropriately represented in the book of Revelation as “lampstands.” Furthermore, bodies of elders, who should be examples to the rest of the congregation, are likened to “stars.” (Rev. 1:20) Describing what he saw, the apostle John, the writer of the book of Revelation, tells us: “I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands someone like a son of man. . . . And he had in his right hand seven stars.”—Rev. 1:12-16.