Can a Divorced Man be a Pastor/ Preacher?

[Gunther]

Originally posted by John Wells:
Gunther,

Compare your statement with Matt. 5:31,32; 19:9; 1 Cor. 7:15 and let God's Word be our guide and judge!

Are those the only passages on divorce? Besides, now you are the one who has not dealt with the issue and have tried to bring in other issues.

Besides, I would not want Stanley as my pastor. It is primarily theological reasons, but that is another point. If he had good theology, he would be welcome to preach, teach, and do a whole host of things. Pastoring is not one of them. That is not pharisaical.

Ease up a bit John.

If you want to talk about divorce and remarriage, please start another thread.

 

[John Wells]

Gunther: Are those the only passages on divorce? Besides, now you are the one who has not dealt with the issue and have tried to bring in other issues.

The topic is “Can a Divorced Man be a Pastor/ Preacher?” What issue(s) have I not dealt with? What “other issues” that have no relevance have I brought in? Straw man tactic duly noted!

Gunther: Besides, I would not want Stanley as my pastor.

You are certainly entitled to that!

Gunther: Ease up a bit John.

I refuse to “ease up” on biblical errancy. If you insist on holding to it, fine, but don’t ask me to place scales over my eyes!

Gunther: If you want to talk about divorce and remarriage, please start another thread. “Remember when John the Baptist accused Herod of being an adulterer because he married his brothers wife? Did the marriage laws apply to Herod or was John misguided?”

Er, uh, I believe I have been debating the subject and it is perhaps you who should start the other thread!

 

[dianetavegia]

I find NO scripture that says a man who was divorced before his conversion is eligible to be a pastor. Just as you ask us for scripture that says he CANNOT be a pastor (which I feel we provided) .... I ask you for scripture that says he CAN.

Mal 2:16
"For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one's garment with violence," Says the Lord of hosts. "Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously."

De 22:
28 "If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.

Mt 19:8
He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

1 Co 7: But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife...... 12 But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. 13 And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him.

Matthew 5:32
but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 19:9
"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

 

[Refreshed]

It all comes down to this. Though you are forgiven if you ask of the Lord, there many times are still consequences to be paid.

Jason

 

[Jimmy C]

Here is a situation our Deacon body actually had to deal with.

We did not ordain divorced men, although I thought we should, especially when the man was divorced prior to becoming a christian. But when a man came to us who acknowledged having a child out of wedlock it put us in a difficult postion.

Another difficult decision for us today, do you ask a man if he has ever had relations with a woman other than his wife - if so would he not be seen in the eyes of the lord as married to the other woman? What about prior to conversion?

My prediciton is that this situation would be quite thorny, that is if you were to get truthful answers from your prospective pastors. And how would you go about asking the question?

 

[Elijah]

Originally posted by John Wells:
Another point! Those on the other side of this debate from me seem to naturally assume that a "never divorced" pastor is a successful spiritual leader of his family. It is notorious (many jokes attest to this) for pastor's kids to be the most unruly kids in the church There are many previously divorced pastors (12% according to a Barna study) who are better spritual leaders than some of their never divorced counterparts.

The unconditional barring of divorced men as pastors is neither biblical nor practical. It is a pharisaic, dogmatic standard and not a biblical standard. I can think of far worse never divorced pastors to submit my authority to than Charles Stanley, for example!

"Many of the same preachers who scream vehemently against Divorced preachers and deacons hold a Scofield Bible high in the air and wave it backwards and forth. I wonder if they know that Dr. Scofield was divorced and remarried?" - from above linked article!

Amen Brother
This issue hits home with me on a personal level, as I am a man who many years ago went through a divorce. many in the baptist church make me and others who have been through this ordeal into second class Christians good for nothing more than filling a pew

(I thank God that He didnt look at me that way).I have now been married for 10 years and have 2 wonderfull children, and serve in the position of a Pastor in a Baptist church. It hasnt been an easy road at times, but God called me to this ministry and I intend to fulfill my calling. (I did by the way have scriptural reasons for my divorce.) One thing that I have noticed concerning this, There are several clear qualifications for bishop, deacon, etc., the most vague is "the husband of one wife", yet it seems to be the only qualification that those on the other side of this look at. We must be carefull to let the bible say what it says, but let us not make the bible say what we want it to say. I on the other hand, plan on preaching Jesus next sunday and the sunday after that and so on, until He calls me home.

 

[Elijah]

[.

The unconditional barring of divorced men as pastors is neither biblical nor practical. It is a pharisaic, dogmatic standard and not a biblical standard. I can think of far worse never divorced pastors to submit my authority to than Charles Stanley, for example!

"Many of the same preachers who scream vehemently against Divorced preachers and deacons hold a Scofield Bible high in the air and wave it backwards and forth. I wonder if they know that Dr. Scofield was divorced and remarried?" - from above linked article! [/QB][/QUOTE]

And I thank the Lord that Charles Stanley did not step down from his "CALLING". I get much inspiration from his preaching. I believe that we would be losing a powerfull voice for Christ had he left his pulpit.

 

[John Wells]

Diane,

Woman (in Jesus' loving terms! ), why do you exasperate me!

I do not dispute any of your scripture references. God hates divorce. It is wrong. God hates sin. It is wrong. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All pastors have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If far enough in the past, especially prior to conversion, does the Bible state that there are any sins that disqualify one from pastorship? NOooooooo! You won't find it in 1 Tim 3 or Titus 1 or anywhere else in the Bible.

Can a divorced pastor/deacon be a "husband of one wife" (one-man woman)? - Yes!

Can a divorced pastor be a good spiritual leader of his family (wife and children as 1 Tim 3 requires)? - Yes! One failure in the distant past being a permanent disqualifier IS NOT TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE! It may have been taught in your church, but it is not biblical.

What you need for your case, Diane, is a scripture verse that says "no man may divorce his wife and be a pastor," or "no man may ever have failed as his family's spiritual leader and be a pastor." Short of that, you have gone extra-biblical!

 

[gb93433]

For those of you who believe a man who is divorced cannot pastor I would like to get your response to the following historical practice.

Historically when a person broke the engagement (betrothal) a divorce must be granted for the engagement to be broken legally. The engagement was a promise of marriage with a contract being drawn up and money exchanged. The money was given by the man to the woman's family to be kept in case he divorced his wife. It was for her support should she be left without any support. Divorce pertained to both a marriage and the engagement. So it took a divorce to break a marriage and it also took a divorvce to break an engagement.

I would contend that anyone who believes that a pastor may not have been divorced must also support the point that he must not have broken an angagement as well.

 

[dianetavegia]

John Wells, I like you SO much that I wish I COULD agree with you. In fact, I'm not sure we've ever disagreed on anything else! LOL

However, the qualifications speak to me that this husband of one wife is a forever thing... except for death, of course.

I think you must be one of the nicest people I've ever disagreed with! Now if EVERYONE were as polite as you!!!!!

Diane

 

[John Wells]

Diane,

I agree that we can end this by disageeing. You also are an extremely nice lady and Sister in Christ.

Let this be my last thrust that you might see this in a different light. I presume that you love your current pastor. I know nothing about him, age, length of time being a pastor, etc. But what if his wife just flipped out, had a stroke, or whatever, and out of the clear blue demanded a divorce for no reason, and persisted until she got it through the courts?

Now by your ruling, your beloved pastor would have to end his God called ministry as a pastor, at least at your church! Don't say that would never happen. Let's pray that it doesn't, but anything's possible. It could!

Peace and blessings Diane!
John

 

[Gunther]

This mythical, mystical "calling" has justified so many bad preachers and pastors that it is sickening. Take Jack Hyles for example.

 

[Sincere]

Although, divorce seems to be an in thing as Christians we know that this is not something to take lightly. We should not allow our beliefs to take over scripture when it comes to things like this because that's why so many churches are being misled.

Scripture tells us that there are two allowable reasons for divorce (adultry and if an unbelieving spouse abandons and divorces a believing spouse) and that anything else is a sin, but it is also a forgiveable sin if genuinely repented and not repeated.

I have not seen it anywhere in scripture that a divorced man can not be a pastor. I'm sure there are a lot of other things in a lot of many pastors past that are not pleasing to God, but He calls on them preach. It's not up to us to decide who preaches. If a person is truly blessed with the annointing to preach we believers will be able to discern if they are in the spirit or not.

I'm a firm believer that you can't preach or teach what you don't know, and to hold someone accountable for their past is wrong, Christians should live for today. Satan only dwells on the past to keep people down.

 

[Paul of Eugene]

I've always held the view that when the scripture says a pastor should be the husband of one wife, it meant one wife right now. That's the plain reading of what the Bible says.

Over the years I'm glad to see more and more people taking the plain reading of what the Bible says over the traditions of men as to what the Bible says.

 

[Elijah]

Originally posted by Gunther:
This mythical, mystical "calling" has justified so many bad preachers and pastors that it is sickening. Take Jack Hyles for example.

You are absolutely right,,,to a point. It is a sad fact that there are many false teachers and preachers that claim to be called by God, they deceive people and often times get rich doing so. However the True calling of God is neither "mythical" nor "mystical", but it is very much supernatural. So that being said, how do we discern the wheat from the chaff; Matt,7:15-20 tells us that its by their fruits that we we will
know them, and that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

 

[Johnv]

Originally posted by dianetavegia:
My church does not allow a divorced man or a man married to a divorced woman to be a pastor or a deacon. We feel scripture that says 'husband of one wife' (not one at a time) covers this qualification quite well.

Then, do you exclude single men from being pastor? What about widowed men? What about widowed and remarried men?

This verse has nothing to do with divorce, it has to do with polygamy.

 

[John Wells]

Johnv,

Actually, although we agree on the conclusion that these passages do not prohibit a pastor from having been divorced, a historical look at Palestine during Paul's time will reveal that polygamy was practically non-existant. It had been a real problem prior to the Babylonian exile, but tapered off from the return. Roman occupation further frowned upon the practice.
Our position can successfully be argued, in context, as giving examples (not 100% inclusive, but merely some examples) of what is meant to be held "blameless."

 

[amixedupmom]

Actually yes he can be. To anyone. You cannot expect your pastor to be perfect. And, his past has nothing to do with his ministy. We ALL have pasts and, would rather that those things be left there. I know I do. I don't understand why a divorced man cannot be. I'm sorry if my opinion rattles the nerves of others.

God Bless

 

[Paul of Eugene]

Originally posted by John Wells:
Johnv,

Actually, although we agree on the conclusion that these passages do not prohibit a pastor from having been divorced, a historical look at Palestine during Paul's time will reveal that polygamy was practically non-existant. It had been a real problem prior to the Babylonian exile, but tapered off from the return. Roman occupation further frowned upon the practice.
Our position can successfully be argued, in context, as giving examples (not 100% inclusive, but merely some examples) of what is meant to be held "blameless."

uhh - John - didn't Paul's ministry and the audience addressed by his letters have a slightly wider context than Palestine?

 

[John Wells]

OK Paul, the same applies to Asia Minor, Greece, Italy! Did I leave anything out? In case I did, the same applies to ___________.