As I wrote in post #20, the pastor must be the husband of one wife and raised a child/children in the proper manner thus demonstrating the ability to manage the family for one can not manage the houshold how can they manage the church? The key point of the enire passage is that opne must be able to do this and be of good character. A widowed husband who properly managed his household would qualify if he met the remaineder of the qualifications.
The divorce issue can be quite complicated. Our conference will not knowingly ordain anyone who is divorced, no exceptions. As a member of this conference I would abide by this stance. However, I do believe there are circumstances where a divorced man could qualify.
The phrase "husband of one wife" also takes into account womanizing. God does not want an Episkopos who cheats, lust, fornicates, or commits adultery. I hope this clarifies my beliefs.
I am far from a Greek scholar, or any other scholar for that matter but it is my understanding that Episkopos translated here as bishop and other places as overseer, entails the office that I reference today as Pastor, while poimanein, translated pastor in Eph 4:11 and shepard in all other uses references the duties or works of the position.
I don't want to get into a debate over the title of the overseer of the local church. Some call them Pastor, some Elder, some Bishop. I don't really care and find such debates as trivial as how you reference Revelation or Revelations.
