Qualifications of Church Leaders

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Okay, so we had on our Facebook live I addressed the issue of one of the qualifications of a pastor being a one woman man or the husband of one wife and Someone had asked if we would cover all of the qualifications of leaders.

Announcements, Reviews, and Giveaway Updates

So that's what we're gonna do on today's rap report. But before we do have some announcements, first off, let us get to some reviews of the rap report. We got a wonderful review from Kev Marty. He titled it as fear guilt love Give us your money.

He gave us a wonderful one star review. That's right. He obviously has listened to the podcast often because he said this in his review. Same old victim mentality using appeal to a motion to get your money.

Andrew is a sham. Obviously, he doesn't listen very much because if he did listen Yeah, he would know that I'm horrible at asking for money. I don't do it very Regularly and I do a poor job at it so I'm sorry Kev Marty, but you just revealed that you are just nothing more than a hater who probably hates Christianity and post this on every single podcast that relates to Christianity and You probably don't even listen very much.

So let us get to a better review one. That's more Informative actually, that's what it says. It's a five-star review Informative truth with love this came from Cardinal one and he says Andrew does a great job of presenting the truth of the gospel in love.

I always learn ways to bring up spiritual matters when speaking with others plus How to handle questions that may come up. He also has Interesting guests. Well, I'm sorry Cardinal one, but no guests today.

I Should as an Additional wrap-up of administrative type things announce the winners in case they didn't listen to the Facebook live. We had some winners of both the Todd Friel book Judge not and the Alan Nelson book from death to life.

So for the Todd Friel book We had several winners Steve Polakowski Joshua Sparks Kevin Tully Steve Melzen and Rob Melton week Rob is from Canada. What are we doing sending him a book? Yes, Rob, you get one too will even send to Canada for the Alan Nelson book yes, could you believe that Alan Nelson actually entered to win his own book and He did.

So Alan Nelson is one of the winners of his own book. I guess he's gonna give that away. Colin Gibbs and Daryl up dyke are the other winners of from a death to life so I Still want to know what Alan's going to do with with his book so as a giveaway for the month of April if you share any one of the episodes of the rap report podcast and Hashtag rap report rap with two B's by the way Hashtag rap report we will find it and we're giving away two copies this month of the Marriage pyramid by the way, if you share the episode I did on the marriage pyramid by dr Danny Purvis, you will get two.

That's right two entries. So you can share anyone for one and as many as you want put hashtag rap report in the month of April. But if you share the one that I did with Danny Purvis you get two entries.

Just an incentive for you. All right with that. Let us get to today's topic. This is something that unfortunately many churches do not want to think about is the importance of church qualifications for their leaders.

There's many churches that How can I say this? They will take anyone that gives a lot of money and Say well, you're qualified for a leader because obviously you help support the church. Yeah, I don't see that in any of the leadership qualifications.

When we look at the qualifications, we see two main passages. 1st Timothy 3 Titus 1. I want to go through them and I will let you know up front that if you want to get a one Sheet one card a quick reference card.

You can get it at striving fraternity org slash well. That store. I don't know if it's slash store slash shop. But if you go to the store it's driving fraternity org. We have a quick reference card a nice hard stock paper that gives you the qualifications of church leaders.

It goes over those of pastor and those of deacons both male and female deacons, by the way. Whatever your position may be what the female is with that's a deacon or the wife of a deacon. But we go through all of those and just give you a quick reference for those.

And so those are only like two dollars and fifty cents, but you can get three for five dollars. So you may want to check out the other reference cards that we have. That aside let us go through in today's podcast some of the Qualifications of a church leader so that you know what to expect if you're gonna vote someone as a pastor or deacon.

What should you be looking for now, by the way? Let me say up front that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. This list is a list that you should be desiring to fulfill in your own life. So it doesn't matter whether you plan to be a pastor or deacon.

This is something all of us should aspire to Have as the characteristics of our life the pattern of our life. Now this doesn't mean that someone's not gonna break one of these once in a while. But the issue is the pattern of life.

How is your life described and if your life is described by these? Then this is how you should be described. And so let's take a look at these. We see the first characteristic that's mentioned is blameless.

This is in 1st Timothy 3 2 and verse 10 also in Titus 1 7 so this is repeated three times and refers to both elders or pastors and Also servants whether male or female it literally means that one cannot lay hold of.

It's sometime translated above reproach. This is a must. It has the idea of unrebukeable. This does not mean that a man must be perfect. For no one could be qualified if that's the case. But it is the idea that no one has anything they can nail against a person.

It is the idea that they are not covering up some sin. But they are quick to reconcile. The man must reconcile things and not cover them up. An example of this would be and this is a true example. An Elder arrested for drunk driving that stepped down for quote-unquote personal sins.

The man was not qualified in my mind to return to being a pastor. Because of the fact that he refused to admit to what he actually did wrong. Any person that came to church that was in court when he was? found guilty of a drunk driving Would immediately realize that this person had something that could be held against him.

He had stepped down and Basically said family issues. Well, that was a way out, but I felt he was not qualified. There was another person who was in ministry and he was involved in. Well, he basically had an addiction of pornography.

He stepped down because of busyness of life from ministry and he Also, I would say was not qualified to reenter ministry because he did not admit to the porn addiction that he had now. It was something where stepping down.

You don't have to be completely public or go go into more detail than needed. But if you want to be qualified for ministry, I would say that you must be blameless. You must have nothing that someone can nail to you.

If you have asked forgiveness for whatever sins you've committed then you're blameless. They can't hold it against you because you have asked forgiveness. If these people would have admitted to their drunk driving or their porn addiction.

That would have been different but because they stepped down from ministry for different reasons and then wanted to get back into ministry my view would be if they didn't admit to the Actual thing that got them out of ministry, then they wouldn't be a blameless.

They wouldn't be above reproach so above reproach is one of the first things and it means the idea of not having anything that anyone can nail to you. A second Qualification that we see is temperate. We see this in 1st Timothy Chapter 3 verses 2 and verse 11.

It's repeated twice. It refers to both pastors and female servants, by the way, I say servants. That's the actual word for deacons. It means a waiter of tables. It's not a leader in the church. It's someone who's a servant in the church and the Greek word here for temperate actually means wineless or Unmixed with wine.

It means sober or temperate someone who is abstaining from wine. Whether or not they're the issue that we have here is that they're not given over To alcohol. In other words, they're not getting drunk often.

This is used as a way of describing someone. That's a self-controlled. Now keep in mind in the first century the wine was different than the wine that we would have today. Wine was something to basically purify the water.

And so people did drink a wine didn't have as much alcohol as content as we have today. But the reality is they did have alcohol. I can't believe you said that yes, some people some people believe that no one had alcohol and That the wine would have been so watered down that there was no alcohol content.

That's actually not true. But the alcohol served a purpose in killing the dysentery in the water. What we see here is that this the word here has the idea of self-controlled or level-headed. Not someone who rushes in To something without thinking it through.

That's the idea of temperate. Third characteristic that we have is the one of sober-minded. Sober-minded we see in 1st Timothy 3 to also in Titus 1 8. It is repeated twice and refers only to pastors.

The Greek word has the meaning of a sound mind sane in one senses or the idea of Curbing one's desires or impulses. So it's the idea of being self-controlled or temperate. An elder needs to be a having a character of Self-discipline, he needs to be one characterized by discipline in his priorities in the use of his time and In his duties of service.

He is a person who is serious about spiritual things. That does not mean that he's cold and humorless. But that he views the world with an eternal perspective. If one is tempered and sober-minded in his thinking it will result in self-discipline.

Now, let's look at the fourth one. This is a good behavior. We see this in 1st Timothy 3 2. It's only used of pastors in that passage and the Greek word means well-arranged. Seemly or modest. Its basic meaning is to be orderly.

His well-disciplined mind leads to a well-disciplined life. The pastor needs to be organized by nature. He if a pastor is not organized the many duties of his calling are going to be neglected. And so he has to be of good behavior well organized.

Let's move on to the fifth one and that's hospitable. This is seen in 1st Timothy 3 2 Titus 1 8 and we see this repeated those two times referring to pastors. The Greek word here is one that that is a compound word for to love and strangers it has the meaning of Hospitable or generous to guests.

It does not refer to entertaining friends. But is how you are hospitable to strangers, you know being hospitable to our friends. Well, that makes sense. We like them. But how hospitable are you? How much love do you show toward?

Strangers people you don't really know that would be a Characteristic of a pastor number six would be not given too much wine. Well, this one gets kind of interesting. We see this in 1st Timothy 3 3. 1st Timothy 3 8 and Titus 1 7 so this refers to both pastors in Both Timothy and Titus and to male servants.

Now, it's interesting because not given to wine in 1st Timothy 3 3 is A single word which literally means not a slave to alcohol now. Reason I say it's interesting is because it is stated as not given to wine for pastors and not given too much wine for deacons and therefore some try to make a Distinction as if deacons some kind somehow can have a little bit of wine, but pastors can't have any.

Well, actually this was a problem that Timothy had and Paul says to him have a little wine for your stomach's sake. Because he was trying to have no wine, but he had the suffered the effects of Dysentery in the water.

You can see us in 2nd Timothy 523. However, the purpose of wine was to kill the bacteria. We don't have that issue in America today, but this goes I think beyond just the issue of wine. I think it addresses the issue of wine drugs gambling pornography work gossip.

Being addicted to food it really deals with any kind of addiction that someone may have and That may be a concern that they're not qualified for ministry if they're given over to an addiction. Don't qualification number seven is not violent.

We see this in 1st Timothy 3 3. Also in Titus 1 7. Use twice both to refer to pastors. The Greek word literally means Not a striker. An elder or pastor is One who should express himself? Not by acts of violence or anger.

This is the idea of not being a brawler. A man who thinks all his problems can be solved with his fists. Cannot solve problems in the church. A pastor must be a peacemaker not a problem creator. An Elder must be one who reacts to difficulty without Physical violence.

He must not settle disputes with blows. He must react calmly coolly and gently. You can see this in a cross-reference from 2nd Timothy to 24 to 25. I knew of a pastor who I would say was disqualified from ministry because he was always ready to get into a fight.

Now sometimes we see that people are willing to get into a fight Physically as the man I'm referring to. But there's another disqualification. I would think those who are online that are always looking for arguments always looking to get into verbal arguments.

I think that also might disqualify a man for pastor number eight. Not greedy for money. We see this in 1st Timothy 3 3. 1st Timothy 3 8 and Titus 1 7. So this refers to both pastors and male servants and the Greek word has the meaning of being eager or Greedy for money.

It has the idea of someone who is a lover of money not money itself. But what money could abstain obtain for a person? Paul says in 1st Timothy 6 10 the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and the pastor or servant Aka deacon must not be a person who's given over to sinful desires of money.

For the use of what they can gain from it this includes those Televangelists who pray on the poor to take advantage of their weaknesses and their illnesses to obtain money for themselves. They are Disqualified for ministry.

Yes. I just called out Benny Hinn Kenneth Copeland Joel Osteen and the rest of the lot who pray on the poor so that they can get money for themselves. If they were real Ministers of the gospel they would give away that money.

They wouldn't be looking to obtain it all for themselves. Those who are not qualified for ministry have a love for money. It is one of the things we see with false teachers that they love money because of what it can give for them.

Number nine gentle. This we see in 1st Timothy 3 3. It's only used of pastors there and the Greek word means seemingly suitable for or Fair-minded gentle moderate. It describes a person who is considerate forbearing gracious who easily Pardons human failure.

Such a person remembers the good and not the evil. He does not keep a list of wrongs as we see in 1st Corinthians 13 when it talks about love. He does not keep a list of wrongs done to him. He does not hold a grudge.

You know many men leave ministry because they cannot accept criticism and a pastor when wronged Must have no thought of retaliation. That's the idea here. He must be someone who is not going to hold a grudge against another he's gentle.

Number 10 in our qualification list is seen in 1st Timothy 3 3 and it is the idea of not quarrelsome. Now this is used of pastors and it's literally in the Greek translated not a brawler or contentious.

So you're uncontentious. It means not to be with stood Invincible not contentious abstaining from fighting. It refers not so much to physical violence as to a quarrelsome person. To have a contentious person in leadership will result in disunity and disharmony.

Seriously hindering the effectiveness of that leadership. This is one who loves to engage in non-physical aggression one who is contentious and displays Anger through words or aimed at people. It's important for an elder not to carry this characteristic into ministry because a pastor who has Will have many opportunities to abuse the privilege of the pulpit in order to intend with someone he disagrees with is a sinful thing.

It is a sin against God to be a Quarrelsome man, and so if you're going to be qualified for ministry You should be someone who is not seeking to get into a fight. In other words really simple. Are you willing to trust God with your disputes?

This is really what comes into effect of do you trust God and his sovereignty when it comes to things that you may? Disagree with you know, many of us have had people wrong us and boy do we want to be righted?

But the reality is a person that is qualified for ministry is going to be a person who is Not quarrelsome, and they're not looking for the fight. Number 11 in our qualifications that we see in first Timothy 3 3 is Not covetous.

This is used only once of pastors and the Greek word carries the meaning of someone who is Free from the love of money not greedy. That's important because we see many men those Evangelists I mentioned already who love Money, and they do what they do because they can get more money out of it.

That's a Disqualification. If you have a love for money you do not have a love for what God calls us to. Now number 12 is a good testimony or a good reputation. We see this in first Timothy 3 7 and 8 it is used twice from first to both pastors and Servants female servants, by the way, the Greek word means a record a report a testimony a witness.

The Greek words for testimony and reputation are based on the same root word that we get our English word martyr from now a pastor's character should be Certified by the testimony of outsiders of the church.

A man chosen to lead the church must maintain a reputation in the community for righteousness moral character love kindness generosity and goodness. They must be men of integrity and Above reproach in their community now.

There's some people who they don't have any reputation in the community because they're not involved with unbelievers. How do unbelievers view the pastor that may actually play in To whether they're qualified for ministry or not.

Now we're gonna get to a couple of more of these after this message.

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Self-Control, Family Leadership, and the Deacon Qualifications

All right, so continuing on we have our next characteristic that we see as we go through our list of characteristics and the next one that we have is one that is described In is not a self-willed this is in Titus 1 7.

Not self-willed is used of pastors. The Greek word means self-pleasing self-willed or arrogant. This word refers to someone who is pleased with himself despises others surly and Basically, it is a person who?

Maintains his own opinion of himself or search his own rights. But is reckless to the rights feelings or interests of others. He regards his life with No respect to other people. Well that usually looks to aggressive a self assertive people for leadership.

However, those characteristics disqualify a man for leadership in the church. Where a self-willed man has no place every believer and certainly every church leader must continually fight the battle against the flesh of self will self-fulfillment and self-glory.

Now another characteristic that we see number 14 is not quick-tempered. We see this in Titus 1 7 it's used for pastors and the Greek word means not prone to anger not quarrelsome quiet peaceable tranquil.

This refers to a person that is not easily provoked to anger. The qualified pastor must carefully guard against the spirit of hostility resentment and anger. Even when everything in the church seems to be going wrong and People are critical or indifferent toward him.

He is a man who can delegate responsibility to others Who may not fulfill a task that is exactly the way he would do it. In other words, he's willing to allow people to fail. He can work with others in kindness and patience and gratitude.

He can allow Dedicated but inexperienced people around him to fail until they learn to succeed. His own ego is not tied up in everything that's done in the church. He is somebody who is looking to see people succeed in the end.

Now this is really hard for some leaders because they really think no one should be allowed to fail and they can do it better Than anybody else because they've already learned but you know what? We've all learned from our mistakes and this kind of leader is someone who recognizes that and allows others to Fail and make mistakes so that they can learn to be a better leader.

Number 15 in our Qualifications for church leaders is a lover of what is good we see this in Titus 1 8 it is used only once of pastors and the Greek word means a lover of goodness and carries the idea of having a strong affection for that which is intrinsically good and a pastor should Love those things and those people who are genuinely good.

Now we see number 16 is just we see this in Titus 1 8 and Notice that these are all dealing with issues so far of character. Just has the idea. It's referred to as Toward pastors and the Greek word is a common word in the New Testament.

Which means just or right and it's in notes that which is proper right and fitting is Frequently rendered Righteousness and so a pastor is going to be someone who is described by being just now one more when we get to the characteristic issues, and we have only two more in the category of characteristics.

We see here that he should be holy. We see this in Titus 1 8 referring to pastors and the Greek word means Undefiled by sin free from wickedness religiously observing every moral objection purely pure holy and So what we see here is it refers to a person who separates himself from sin and the world.

Not perfectly but as a pattern of life. He wants to be set apart for God and doing what God calls him to do. This is the idea of holy by the way, it's where we get the word saint from also in Titus 1 8.

We have the 18th characteristic that we look at and that is self-controlled. Self-controlled is referred to pastors. The Greek word has the meaning of mastering controlling curbing restraining controlling oneself temperate or disciplined.

A Pastor lives an exemplary life on the outside he submits to the Holy Spirit's control on the inside. A pastor who's not self-controlled who does not Continually monitor his own life. Submitting to sin to or to the Lord's cleansing of it is not fit to lead God's people.

No matter how outwardly righteous He may appear if he acts right only when others are looking. He is doing just that acting. The self-controlled pastor walks with God in integrity of his heart. He is he has that continual continual grace of God.

Working in his life to the degree that he is spiritually mature and morally pure. My seminary professor used to say this you are you are when you're alone with God and Many people put on a show. A person who's not self-controlled is gonna put on a show for people.

But he's not qualified for ministry. Now. We have a couple that are in the area of Characteristics of character issues that refer only to the deacons. Let's look at those now. We look at number 19 and that's Reverent.

It's used twice both of male and female Servants or deacons. The Greek word has the meaning of worthy of honor or reverence. It's the idea of being serious or dignified or honorable. This word Identifies the deacons as one who is serious and respectable in their demeanor.

A Servant will be working in the realm often of the modate mundane and in the realm of assisting people in their relation to people. They are to have an attitude that is respectable and in relation to their works.

They must see those acts of servants as essential to contributing to the work of the ministry. They are to be characterized as ones who take on the smallest aspects of ministry very seriously and Something that is to be done unto the Lord and so they have a reverence.

Number 20 and again only referring to the deacons or servants is not double tongued. We see this in 1st Timothy 3 8 and this one is one that refers to the female servants. The word only appears in the New Testament once and literally a means to speak out of both sides of your mouth.

It means not to be two-faced or deceitful or insincere or hypocritical. Some think it refers to gossip. A person who has so to speak. Not one that's double-tongued. In other words someone who doesn't like to talk about others.

A deacon speech must not be hypocritical but be characterized by integrity consistency and Honesty. A man or in this case a woman who tells different stories to different people will quickly lose confidence and Manifest a duplicitous and Manipulative motive.

They would be double-tongued and not qualified for leadership within a church. Number 21 as we look through our Characteristics that we should all be striving for but are specific to those in leadership and in this case to male Servants we see in Acts 6 3 and it is the idea being full of the Holy Spirit.

It is required only of male servants or deacons. But may be implied to the females as well. They must be fully Yielded to the Holy Spirit's control in every area of their life. That is a description that they would have we also see number 22 in Acts 6 3 is full of Wisdom.

It's only used once to refer to the deacons and it is Required only of the male servants, but it could be implied to the female as well. They must have biblical and theological understanding and knowledge and The practical wisdom to apply those biblical truths to situations in everyday life.

They must be men and women that are sober and righteous and judgment. This is the idea of being full of wisdom. One more that we see speaking of Specifically the female deacons in 1st, Timothy 311 is not slanderous.

The Greek word means slander malice gossip backbiting. When used in the singular noun form it always is translated as Satan. Yes, that's right. The word literally means one who Accuses and women who are ministering in the area of need To be set apart as an example in their speech.

Not one that's complaining about people in the church. But one who is bent on building people up and if needed willing to confront instead of complain. Another one that we see for the female deacons is faithful in all things we see this in 1st, Timothy 311 and The Greek word here has the meaning of being trustworthy or faithful in everything.

They must be absolutely Trustworthy in all areas of life and ministry. These women are those who can be given a job and you can rest in the fact that they will get it done. We see many extremes of faithfulness.

Particularly as it relates to the tensions between home and the church. Some women get involved in their homes that they so much so that they fail to minister those outside of their family. Then you find some who are so involved in ministry and the local church that they neglect their duties of a wife and mother.

Faithfulness in all things means that you have a balanced approach to both family and Ministry. Now those are all the Qualities that we would look at under the category of character. Now we move into those qualities that we'll put in the category of ministry and When we look at here and as we're counting our Characteristics, this would be number 25.

Able to teach we see this in 1st. Timothy 3 2. We see this referring to Pastors and the Greek word has the meaning of apt and skillful in teaching. The pastor is one if he's going to be qualified to be specifically gifted in the area of teaching.

This gives us the idea that a pastor is to teach but a pastor must be highly skilled as a teacher. One who is gifted in that way who works hard at his studies and proclamation. That is One who is qualified is set apart from the Deacons in the fact that he is apt to teach.

Teaching by the way is not just Giving lots of information. Teaching is something that is able to communicate Ideas to a listener. So the fact that you say lots of things doesn't mean you're a good teacher.

It is when it's communicated so that the listener Understands them. That's a good teacher. This is a major part of being a pastor is that he is a teacher he can communicate God's Word. We seen not a novice or proven.

We see this in first Timothy 3 6 and First Timothy 3 10. It's used of both pastors and of male servants and the Greek word is literally not a novice. It appears in the New Testament as literally meaning not newly planted.

It refers to trees as a metaphor not being a newly planted tree. We actually get the word from this Greek word we get the word English word neophyte from it and It doesn't refer to age meaning a younger person.

So it doesn't mean that if you're a younger person, you're not qualified. It refers to spiritual immaturity or spiritual maturity. This has the idea that a pastor should not be a new convert and It also is someone who should be mature in the faith.

This is the only Qualification that comes with a warning by the way that if a pastor is a novice he could become puffed up. I have seen that countless times where people who get rushed into ministry and They're novices.

They're new to the faith, but they have natural leadership abilities and they're rushed into seminary they never learn to sit in a pew and what ends up happening is they get puffed up in their head and They start to think more highly of themselves, they're not tested or trustworthy and so one must be a More spiritual person to be qualified as a pastor or dead deacon.

Another characteristic related to ministry is holding fast to the faithful word or Holding to the mystery of faith. We see this in Titus 1 9 and 1st Timothy 3 9. Now this appears in two different phrases But has kind of the same idea one referring to pastors one referring to male servants and the two phrases have the idea of being steadfast in Sound doctrine of God's Word.

This is the idea of loving God's Word Living his word teaching his word and being faithful to God's Word. It's more than mere head knowledge. It is understanding the details of sound doctrine But includes practically living it out.