Who decide if one can or cannot serve the Lord?

My personal preference?

(1) Ask a minister...NOT necessarily for permission, but he might be able to enlighten you on others who feel that way, give guidance, or in rare occasions (we had someone who wanted to start a ministry that would have required too much building space) encourage you to rethink/refine that vision.
(2) Have at it! The church will support you, and publicize your ministry...as long as it stays within the guidelines of our purposes. (In other words...you want a sports ministry here? Great! But our church teams won't play on Sundays or Wednesday nights). We can help you define your leadership if need be, or just cheer you on if not.

We try and not have committees. Committees mean meetings. We don't like meetings. (yeah, I know, some are necessary...but not many!)

 

pia,

Im going to assume you mean start a few ministries within your local church?

In that case you'd absolutely need to ask the pastor first about potential workers. He knows things about others in the church that would give him wisdom as to who should or should not serve in various types of ministries. (Im not saying he would share the specific information with you, just that he can say "yes" or "no" based on his special information.)
Also, the pastor should be talked to first, before the potential workers should be approached.

We usually don't have committees in my church, either. Things run much more smoothly if there is one specific person in charge, and there is a clear chain of command as to who that person answers to and who answers to that person.

After finding out which people are an option, prayerfully consider everyone. Don't rule someone out just because they are relatively new, but then again don't automatically accept someone just because they have been around longer. Try and ask some people who are not currently serving anywhere rather than asking the people who already get asked to do everything.

Age can be a factor, too. I think that youth groups need to have some older people helping out as well. Many older people have so much to offer the teens and younger kids, but we tend to just have younger people working in those areas. Branch out, and let the Senior citizens help the young kids, too.

 

Go to the pastor first; if nothing else he can probably give you guidance as to how to proceed with your plans. And don't just float some vague idea: get together with a few like-minded people if you can, and take some time to put together a proposal of at least modest detail. "Without counsel plans fail,but with many advisers they succeed" (Prov. 15:22).

 

OK. First, let's go to the book. Look at 1Tim 3 and Titus 1. There are some good qualifications for leaders there...

Work with the Pastor, of course. Committees, if you must, but ALWAYS ALWAYS, FOLLOW THE BOOK!!!

 

Churches are to be led by Elders/Pastors, not committees! Any time a committee has more authority than the Pastors/Elders, it is an unBiblical situation. I have no problem with things being unanimous as long as the ones making the decisions about the direction of the church meet all of the qualifications of 1Tim 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9, INCLUDING APT TO TEACH!

If a person does not understand the Word of God well enough to teach it effectively, then he does not understand it well enough to make leadership decisions about the direction and ministry of a local church!