How Are Pastors Appointed? | (un)ANSWERED

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We've all experienced the odd occurrence in the Bible, and was left with fringe questions.

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Watch and listen, as we leave no question unanswered.

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Over the centuries, many have considered, how is a pastor appointed in the local church?

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Is it like any other job, application process, an interview, negotiation, hiring, things like that?

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How is he considered qualified for this role? Now what may seem like it's unanswered in the

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Bible, actually has the principles there. Let's consider them together. Our primary text, where we see the qualifications for a pastor, are in the first letter to Timothy in chapter 3.

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There you'll see what's called overseer. That is episkopos. Then you have elder, which is presbyteros.

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Then you have shepherd, or pastor, which is poimenos. Those we can consider to be three interchangeable titles, all pointing towards the same exact office.

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Let's go to verse 1 right now. It is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.

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You see, the first thing to point out is that it is someone's personal aspiration.

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It is not something where we can compel a man against his will. It is not right for a father or anyone to make his son go into the office of clergyman.

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You see, times even in the Roman Catholic Church, where punitive measures were taken upon a man, and he was sent in punishment to become a monk in a monastery, to become a holy man.

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That's not the point of this. This word in the Greek, aspire, even means desire.

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That's the very first thing that a man has to have. Does he desire? Does he aspire into this office of pastor?

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So with that, we can consider that there are two callings that a man has upon his life when entering into the office of pastor.

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The first would be that internal calling, that internal aspiration.

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And this is something where this man has hit his knees to the ground in prayer. He has talked with the

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Lord. He has come before Him. God, is this something that I should do? Is this something that You want me to do?

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This has to be something where he can't consider doing anything else. In fact, he might be a bit apprehensive to do it.

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He might be a bit scared, but that's better than being overconfident. I'd be a bit worried if he wasn't apprehensive or a bit scared.

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So that's the internal calling. That's the first calling upon a man's life. Now besides that, we have what's called the external call.

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This is the second calling. You see, a man can't simply appoint himself. He can't simply become a pastor and start his own church according to the

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Word of God. That would be lawless. That would be wrong. And that would be without checks and balances, which is what the

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Scripture shows we have to have as pastors. Now to see this external calling highlighted, we need to go to Acts chapter 6.

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Now I know Acts chapter 6 shows us the appointment of the seven deacons, but I think it gives us also a prototype of how the external calling takes place.

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We see that the apostles and the leaders of the church said that they were looking for men to help them in the acts of mercy within the church.

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It says in verse 3 that they are to select from among them seven men of good reputation, full of the

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Spirit, and full of wisdom. You see, even when I personally aspired to the office of elder, my elders at the very same time recognized the calling upon my life.

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They saw God was singling me out for pastoral ministry. In other words, without biblically qualified leaders looking upon your life and considering if you are called, then no one should be in pastoral ministry.

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Who else would be able to put you up against the moral and character qualifications of the

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Word of God? You can't do that on your own. You need others to match you up against it.

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Paul gave Timothy this list of moral and ethical qualifications for a new leader by the process and examination of existing leaders.

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These are lists that every man has to abide by to become a pastor.

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By the way, you might be noticing that I keep saying man, and that's because there are multiple texts in the imperative form that show only a man can take this office.

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Let's look at the text. An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine, or pugnacious but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.

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He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity.

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But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?

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And he is not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.

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He must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into a reproach and the snare of the devil.

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Those are the qualifications for a pastor. There's so much that we could dissect in this passage, so much that we can pull out of these words.

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The list isn't exhaustive. Anything in the Bible that shows what a man should attain to in righteousness are things even a pastor should attain to.

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Now, this doesn't mean that pastors are going to be perfect. They're simply redeemed individuals like everyone else.

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They have to confess, repent, and renew themselves in the Word of God, but they're called to be above reproach.

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These are things that shouldn't be the constant struggle if you're a pastor. Now, you might be thinking, okay,

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I understand all that. I get it. There's qualifications, character, and moral obligations that a pastor needs to meet before he can enter that office.

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But how do you find them? How does one become a pastor? Let me tell you about that.

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The fact is, this should be a whole local church function. This should be something in which a man is raised up within his church.

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That's the normative process for this. It's simply discipleship. The fact is, if a pastor isn't working hard to find replacements for himself one day, then he's doing things wrong.

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We ought to be always lifting up those around us, elevating those around us, young men who can be used by God, who can eventually even replace me.

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You see, so many pastors make this a thing of sinful competition. They look at young men who are up and coming, and they see a threat to their ministry.

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You hear that? They say, this is my ministry. They say, my.

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They don't realize that this is Christ's ministry. This is the ministry of Jesus Christ.

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They're called to steward it. They're called to care for God's people. And so they can't hold this office over people.

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They need to be preparing the next generation to take over the church for them. You see, even in John chapter 3, when the disciples of John started to recognize that people were coming to Jesus, and little by little people stopped coming to John the

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Baptist, they asked him about that. And his answer was this, that he,

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Jesus, must increase, and I must decrease. And that has to be the heart of every pastor.

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Here's the reality. We've got to find men who don't love the spotlight. We have to find men who are going to shake at the thought of going up to the pulpit and opening this word before God's people.

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We have to find men who don't want sordid gain, who don't want selfishness and greed, and to take advantage of God's people.

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Those are the men we need to find. Men who are already serving the church. Men who serve the church already, who are selfless, who consider the needs of the body and his family over his own.

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You see these type of men. They teach, and they pray with other people, and they love on them.

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And that comes from something within them. It's not artificially created. It's something that God has wrought in them that they have to fulfill.

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They have to work it out. And they want to do that as a pastor. Because so many men, young men, have come up to me and said, how?

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How do I become a pastor? And it almost makes me cringe. How am I supposed to tell them,

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I don't see you serving in the church, so you need to serve in the church. You know why that's hard for me to tell them to serve in the church?

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Because I want their end goal. I want their love to be serving the church.

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I don't want them to use serving the church to get the end goal of the title of pastor.

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I want them to already want to do those things. Are these men who are taking out trash, cleaning toilets, doing even the mundane things.

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Men who don't want the notoriety and fame that others want. Those are the kind of men that we ought to be raising up and encouraging to go into the pastorate.

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So my admonishment for existing pastors is to sit down. Put away more time to sit with these elder candidates, to sit with these men.

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I would challenge you to be able to speak truth into their life. Are these men who are teachable?

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Are these men where you can put a magnifying glass on their life and speak the truth into it?

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Or do they get offended by that? Do they not want to hear your correction? The proverb says, a fool despises correction, but the wise person accepts that correction.

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This is a man really where you're going to see a lot of his qualifications met in the home.

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Does he manage his own household well? Do his children respect him? Does he love his children?

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Does he love his wife? Does his wife joyfully submit to him? Or is his household full of strife?

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Because the principle here is that if his household is chaotic and full of strife and no one submits to him, then no one is going to submit to him in the church.

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This ought to be a man who's not effeminate. He's of a masculine type, biblical masculinity.

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Can he do confrontation? Can he be patient? Can he handle conflict? Can he be the only one standing up in a crooked and perverse generation while everyone else is sitting down?

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Last man standing. And you know what? A lot of you are not going to like to hear this, but it should be a long process.

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It should be something in which it takes time. To get to know a man, it takes a couple years, you guys.

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And look, if he can't be patient in the waiting period, then he's probably not qualified in the first place.

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Does he truly aspire and is he willing to go through the work to get there?

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Everything is in balance. Controlled eagerness is good, anticipation, excitement is good, but it's controlled and it's settled and it's bridled at the instruction of his existing elders.

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I myself even went under scrutiny and theological examination by my elders. That was a very intense ordeal, but it should be part of the process.

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This is part of the process of able to teach. Does he know the Word of God? In Titus it says that he should be able to refute those who don't adhere to sound doctrine.

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Does he go against false teachers? Does he actually know the Word to be able to do that?

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So all in all, the stakes are high with this one. This is important. And the fact is, it's an important role, but really the individual isn't the important one.

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He must increase and we must decrease. The reason why it's an important role, the reason why there's so much scrutiny behind the role of pastor is because Christ cares for his bride.

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Christ is in the business of looking after his church.

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He doesn't want anyone to lead them astray. He doesn't want false teachers to come into his church and turn against his people.

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Paul says in Acts chapter 20 to protect the church for wolves are coming.

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And that's the job of the elders. That's the job of the pastor. So they shouldn't be wolves.

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They should protect from wolves. And that's why this is so serious. God wants to protect his church from error, even from within.

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So it's important for us to take these things to heart. We need to take our time. We need to move slowly.

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Pastors, you need to work with your men. You need to see who God is working in and help them and elevate them and get them to the next level.

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And if you're a man who's aspiring and you have the internal call, just know, don't force and push the external call until God has organically had it happen in your life.

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Then at that point, it's a glorious occasion. You're going to be called before your church.

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You're going to be before your peers and the body is going to affirm you and your elders might lay hands on you and pray over you.

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In my case, I even took an oath sworn to Christ, His church, and His word.

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Because it's heavy. And it's heavy because it is His church. Because Christ's church is

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His prized possession. And He bought it with a price. And that price was

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His very life. And so church, that is how elders are chosen in the local congregation.