Does Your Minister Qualify?

● Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, instructed the disciple Titus to appoint Christian overseers in various cities. In setting out the qualifications to be met by these ministers, Paul emphasized various aspects of exemplary personal conduct as well as the ability to teach God’s Word.​—Titus 1:5-9.

If you attend one of the churches of Christendom, does your clergyman serve because he meets these qualifications? Or might the situation be more like what recently developed at the First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. Needing a Senior Minister, the congregation chose a Pastoral Succession Committee to locate and obtain the personal records of those who might serve as the church’s minister. Were they going to select a man on the basis of the qualifications set out in the Bible? It hardly seems so. In a letter to the members of the church this committee said that they would: “Evaluate those records on the basis of these general guidelines: a person between 35 and 50 years of age who possesses strong pulpit ability, orientation to the fine arts, orientation to the government and academic community, leadership ability and sensitivity to persons and groups so that reconciliation may be accomplished when needed.”

You can imagine the consequent lack of spirituality in a church when a minister is selected with emphasis on “orientation to the fine arts” and “orientation to the government and academic community” instead of on the qualifications in God’s inspired Word.