Opinion on Qualifications for Clergy

I favour mentoring by a qualified pastor, in the way of an internship. What needs to be carefully looked at is that those who can not afford Bible College fees are not in any way precluded from entering into the ministry.

 

The qualifications set up in I Tim 3 and Titus 1 are God's "minimum" qualifications. If someone is MORE qualified than that, that is fine. We all want the most qualified men for the job. "Formal" training is not part of the minimum qualifications. Training certainly is (Titus 1:9; II Tim 2:15). If a man is able to "rightly divide" the word of truth, able to communicate that truth, and has the character by which he can convince people of that truth, then he is qualified. Specifically how to determine that a particular man is qualified is not spelled out in scripture and has come to be called the process of "ordination". Ordination is nothing more than officially declaring that a man is scripturally qualified to be an Elder/Pastor/Bishop of the church.

Dr. Bob, I would disagree a little bit about the wife. If he is married then part of HIS qualification is that she be in subjection to him. If she is or becomes a problem then that makes HIM not qualified. I don't think it should be required or even preferred that she be more than any other wife/woman in the church. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying she should stay in the background. I am saying that whether she becomes a strong, active, high profile member of the church or stays in the background concentrating on providing her husband with the support he needs as home is HER option and should not reflect on HIS qualifications.

 

Salvation is free and only requires acceptance with repentance. Ordination is what comes after you have been proved to be qualified and qualified biblically.

 

Her willing heart is well worth checking up on.

 

Just because we can ordain whom we wish does not mean that we should. I think that an ordaining church should require:

- an M.Div. which included biblical languages and satisfactory academic performance
- one unit of CPE
- a psychological evaluation
- a criminal history check
- a theological paper
- a paper on the role of clergy
- an account of their faith journey
- several letters of recommendation
- a demonstrated history of involvement in the church

Regarding interviewing husbands and wives, I don't think that's appropriate. It is good to ask the candidate if they have discussed the pressures of ministry with their spouse (and to make sure that they've thought about it themselves); but I don't think the spouse needs to be interviewed. Doing so gives tacit approval to the idea that a pastor's spouse must be active in his/her church. In addition, in my experience, churches are rapidly moving away from placing those kinds of expectations on the pastor's spouse.

Joshua

 

Untangled, You said:

The BIBLE says,

Novice: a new convert, neophyte (one who has recently become a Christian) New Testament Greek
neophutos - novice


Joshua All those degrees and papers won't mean diddly squat if a man isn't called by God. First and foremost... a calling, an annointing by God Almighty!

Amen?
Diane

 

Sadly, some churches won't let people's past go. They're always saying "He used to be..." instead of "He is now..."

 

In my experience, the papers are very useful in allowing the ordination council to have a background for discussing the candidate's sense of call.

I agree that a criminal history shouldn't automatically preclude someone from ministry; but the council should be aware of the candidate's background and be able to question it.

The letters of reference can come from within the congregation. They're useful simply as a written record of the person's behavior and background. In addition, bodies outside the local church which affirm/register/endorse a candidate's ordination often require these (for chaplains, for instance).

Joshua

 

Why so much studying on a book you consider nothing more than a "rule of thumb" anyway?

Do they have to pass it or do they have to fail it to be in your church?

I realize that you warmly embrace the gender neutralizing of the scriptures but, I prefer to warmly embrace the truth.

 

I don't think such approval should be tacit. It should be explicit. There is no biblical warrant for husbands and wives to worship in different places. Biblically they should worship together as a family and the biblical expectation is for all believers to be active in church. The pastor's is to be as active as every other lady. She is to serve a vital role in the ministry. A pastor whose wife does not attend and is not faithfully active in church with her husband is disqualified from ministry.

 

Larry,

My preference is certainly to have my wife and son worship in the church where I am the pastor. Nevertheless, for many couples (particularly clergy couples) that may not be an option.

Even if a pastor's spouse is a member of their church, his or her obligations are no different from that of any other member. Consequently, no special evaluation of the spouse is required.

Joshua

 

Bob, I don't see this as far liberal at all. It's not at all unusual for two people to meet in seminary or CPE and fall in love.

I can think of two couples off the top of my head. In one couple, the husband is a Presbyterian pastor and the wife is a UCC minister (former pastor, now denominational executive). In the other, the husband is a baptist minister and the wife is a Methodist minister.

In both cases, since the couples serve in different denominations, it's unlikely that they'll ever be members of the same church.

I can think of other examples if you'd like.

Joshua

 

For a long time I have contended that a church should never call a council TO SEE if a man is qualified to be ordained, but only after THEY KNOW he is qualified to be ordained.

Joshua, I am curious as to why the ministers in your last post are big P, big UCC, big M, and little b??

 

Since "baptist" in-and-of-itself is not a denominational identity, its adjectival use denotes an approach to church polity (see Leon McBeth for example).

Joshua