A True Pastor

For better or worse, youth pastors/ministers/directors are generally seen as being on a lower level than the senior pastor. Some of this is justified, as the senior pastor is typically the "first" among the pastoral staff, and is often the supervisor of the youth minister.

In many churches, the youth position is not an ordained staff position. It is often styled "director." This is very common in other denominations, like the UMC. In the UMC, the pastors itinerate, but the directors do not.

 

I don't think Spurgeon was ever ordained, was he? So is he false or untrue? :tongue3:

 

When referring to the term ordained, I think of the many servants in the church who do not let ordination stand in their way, some do not qualify for the office of deacon, elder or pastor but they do not let that interfere in the way of their service.
Then there are those ordained deacons and pastors that I have met that do not have the mind of a servant but rather the mind of a superior. (I think scripture defines them as fools) To bad for them, I do not think they know what they are missing.

Be proud for his ordination, it is a step forward in his calling. Pray for him as you would other servants of the church for Satan will go extra lengths to cause turmoil and doubt in his life. After all, Satan does not attack those who are not attacking him.

(Added by edit)
Then there are the many who are ordained who serve to the best of their calling no matter the difficulty.

 

Harry Ironside was never ordained--not sure about Spurgeon--remember, the New Park Street Chapel was his second pastorate. He served for a couple of years as the pastor of Waterbeach Chapel in Cambridgeshire.

 

Pastor, often times, is a product of one's own opinion and experience rather than what might be found in God's word.

 

I have served as a pastor for 5 and a half years. i am not ordained and another pastor claims i am not a real pastor for this reason. i suggested that our congregation convene an ordination council to rectify this objection. after prayerful consideratuon and consultation with other ministers, they determined that this was not biblically nessescary for the ministry of our church. i had considered ordination as man made qualification rather than a biblical mandate. perhaps in the future i will reconsider this position, but for now, iwill concentrate on serving God as He has called me to do. if and when God convicts me to pursue ordination i will do so.

 

I look at ordination by your church and your specific faith as a commissioning for you to be able to fulfill the whole duties of a Pastor. Like many have said, what God views as being necessary and what man's views are are totally different at times, although I do believe that a Pastor should desire and seek to be ordained by his home church.

 

Using terms like true or false may not be the best way to characterize men who have not been ordained. But men who are called of God are clearly commanded in scripture to be ordained by the church. There may be men called of God that have not been ordained. They are not false, they have just gotten ahead of God. This is not the same as a man made education standard which requires a specific level of education. Scripture gives a clear mandate and the authority to the church.

 

If God called you...and you answered the call.....you my friend, are a "true pastor". God bless you and your ministry !

 

Where do you see the Scriptural mandate? I see a Scriptural precedent and allusion to it, but the mandate escapes me right now. (...and did Spurgeon get ahead of God?) :tongue3:

Having said that, Jbarner, we should remember that ordination, while no means a guarantor of a call or the bene esse of ministry validation, is an external appropriation by the church of the inward call. IOW, if others can't see it in you, is it in you?

 

The church i served previously and my current church agree that i am called by God as a pastor. the community accepts me as a pastor and i know i am called by God to be a pastor. the man who questions my call also accuses me of heresy because i preach using the nasb. he believes that a real pastor would reject "any modern perversion of the Bible. real men of God only use the true Bible which is the authorized king james translation." these are his words spoken directly to me when i asked him if he made the comment about my lack of ordination.

 

Ordination is an extra-biblical construct that I feel one is free to receive if the situation presents itself. I don't think it makes much difference, in the grand scheme of things. Many people have strong feelings about it, though, and use strange terms like "true" to describe ordained clergy.

It does help with your taxes, though.

 

Tit 1:5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

1Co 7:17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.


There is no precedent or allusion to Pastors who have not been ordained in scripture. A lot of effort was placed on ordaining.

 

Understand your concerns, Saggy. It does seem Biblically prudent, though, for some formal recognition by the church of the gifting by God of this person for ministry. Thus the requirements of I Tim. 3 and Titus 1.

 

Formal recognition is quite understandable, and IMO biblical.

But many churches have made ordination the "third ordinance" of the church, IMO.

 

If the church is willing to call a pastor why would they not want to formally ordain him? It is like the formal declaration membership, there is no reason not to. Quite silly

 

I have a response to this, but I'm late in heading out of town. Get back to you in a couple of days. Thanks for the post.

Edited...okay...brief thoughts and I'll elaborate when I'm back.

Titus 1:5 - ordain in KJV is actually "appoint" and not to the physical act of ordination. Maybe there was a service, but this is not a direct command to ordain all elders, though by example we could extrapolate (with a leap or two) the admonition to do so.

1 Co 7:17 - this is not talking about ordaining ministers. Paul is ordaining (means giving a rule) for the churches. Not germane

More to come......

 

This I'm in total agreement with. More to come....