Should a baptist minister seek licensure?

It should be up to the local church. Licensure is a recognition from a local church of the call of God of a member of their congregation to preach the Gospel. It is not nessescary to be licensed or to grant licensure to perform ministry. It does, however, provide a formal recognition of the individual. This helps other churches who may need someone for pulpet supply to determine that the licensed individual should be somewhat competent and doctrinally correct, as determined prayerfully by the congregation they serve with.

 

Dont most states require ministers to be licensed in order to perform marriages?

 

Yes, he should be licensed. I checked the first, even though the word "cannot" should have been "should not."

Licensure is the formal recognition fo the church that a man is qualified and able to perform the duties of ministry. The local body recognizes the call of God. If a local NT body chooses to not license a man, he should not be in the ministry.

 

I am not aware of any government that licenses someone to preach. YOu may be thinking of a license to marry people. Such a license depends on a prior license from a denomination or a congregation. For instance, in Ohio, you send a copy of your license from a congregation to the secretary of state and they send you a license to perform marriages. They state that your license to solemnize marriage is only good so long as you are ministering at that church. If you change churches, you must obtain a new license, based on credentials from your new church. Not all states requires a state license. Indiana and Michigan are like that.

But I am not aware of anywhere where the government gives a license to preach.

 

By your statement I'd HAVE to change my vote. Under the guidelines of "Separation of Church and State", the licensing of ministers to preach the Gospel is hierarchy.

Seems the Russian Orthodox did this.

It still, as the autonomy of the local, indigenous, Baptist church, the duty to "approve" by granting licensure indicating a thorough examination period of God's Hand on a man to preach, afterall, it's the Lord that calls, but it's the church that sends.

 

I never asked to be licensed or ordained, the churches I worked confirmed my call to ministry by asking if they could be the ones that "performed" both. Most will come to recognize that both are helpful in many situations outside the local ministry. Concerning the role of the government, there really shouldn't be one as far as I am concerned

 

I was licensed by the church where I was called to preach and then after several years of service and education I went back there for my ordination. Although the Lord moved us several times since then they are still my "Bethel" where I recognized God's call for the first time. I was honored when they licensed me because I saw in them a confirmation of what I felt from the Spirit of God.

The government should stay out of it.

I have not performed a wedding since moving to North Carolina last year so I am not sure what the rules are here but in South Carolina, where I lived previously, anyone can perform a wedding. You do not have to be licensed, ordained, or even a preacher. In fact the girl at the courthouse where we lived had performed hundreds of weddings in her capacity as a notary public.

Tentmaker

 

A license means squat anymore. You can get a license off the internet to perform weddings. I'm licensed and ordained in my association. Although this is their process for the preachers, I didn't have to have a license from them to preach.

Ordination is the more important of the two when it comes to preaching, but still not needed to be a preacher.

The license is for society to recognize that you are authorized (in their eyes) to "marry and bury".

 

A-men to that!

A-men and A-men! ( the second on the part of the government's behalf, I wouldn't expect them to say a=men to the truth, so I did it for us, a government of the people, by the people)

Same in Ga., except some counties require registration with at least "license", and that by a recognizable assembly.