Qualifications of Church Leaders

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:03

Welcome to the Rappaport with Andrew Rappaport, where we provide biblical interpretations and applications.

00:11

This is a ministry of Striving for Eternity. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

00:24

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

00:40

So that's what we're going to do on today's Rappaport, but before we do, have some announcements.

00:46

First off, let us get to some reviews of the Rappaport. We got a wonderful review from Kev Marty.

00:53

He titled it as Fear, Guilt, Love, Give Us Your Money. He gave us a wonderful one star review.

01:01

That's right. He obviously has listened to the podcast often, because he said this in his review.

01:07

Same old victim mentality, using appeal to emotion to get your money.

01:14

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.

01:24

I don't do it very regularly, and I do a poor job at it.

01:30

So, I'm sorry, Kev Marty, but you just revealed that you are just nothing more than a hater who probably hates

01:40

Christianity and posts this on every single podcast that relates to Christianity, and you probably don't even listen very much.

01:49

So, let us get to a better review, one that's more informative. Actually, that's what it says.

01:55

It's a five star review, Informative, Truth with Love. This came from Cardinal One, and he says,

02:02

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.

02:17

He also has interesting guests. Well, I'm sorry, Cardinal One, but no guests today.

02:25

I should, as an additional wrap up of administrative type things, announce the winners in case they didn't listen to the

02:32

Facebook Live. We had some winners of both the Todd Friel book, Judge Not, and the

02:39

Alan Nelson book, From Death to Life. So, for the Todd Friel book, we had several winners,

02:46

Steve Polakowski, Joshua Sparks, Kevin Tully, Steve Melzen, and Rob Melzen.

02:54

Wait, Rob is from Canada. What are we doing sending him a book? Yes, Rob, you get one too, we'll even send to Canada.

03:02

For the Alan Nelson book, yes, could you believe that Alan Nelson actually entered to win his own book?

03:11

And he did. So, Alan Nelson is one of the winners of his own book.

03:17

I guess he's going to give that away. Colin Gibbs and Daryl Updike are the other winners of From Death to Life, so I still want to know what

03:28

Alan's going to do with his book. So, as a giveaway for the month of April, if you share any one of the episodes of the

03:39

Wrap Report podcast and hashtag Wrap Report, we will find it, and we're giving away two copies this month of the

03:52

Marriage Pyramid. By the way, if you share the episode I did on the

03:57

Marriage Pyramid by Dr. Danny Purvis, you will get two, that's right, two entries.

04:04

So you can share any one for one, and as many as you want, put hashtag Wrap Report in the month of April, but if you share the one that I did with Danny Purvis, you get two entries.

04:17

Just an incentive for you. Alright, with that, let us get to today's topic.

04:24

This is something that unfortunately many churches do not want to think about, is the importance of church qualifications for their leaders.

04:35

There's many churches that, hmm, 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.

04:49

Yeah, I don't see that in any of the leadership qualifications. When we look at the qualifications, we see two main passages, 1

04:59

Timothy 3, Titus 1. I want to go through them, and I will let you know up front that if you want to get one sheet, one card, a quick reference card, you can get it at strivingforeternity .org,

05:12

well, at the store. I don't know if it's store slash shop, but if you go to the store at strivingforeternity .org,

05:21

we have a quick reference card, a nice hard stock paper that gives you the qualifications of church leaders.

05:28

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, whether 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.

05:46

Those are only $2 .50, but you can get three for $5, so you may want to check out the other reference cards that we have.

05:55

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.

06:06

If you're going to vote someone as a pastor or deacon, what should you be looking for?

06:11

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.

06:24

It doesn't matter whether you plan to be a pastor or a deacon. This is something all of us should aspire to have as the characteristics of our life, the pattern of our life.

06:37

This doesn't mean that someone's not going to break one of these once in a while, but the issue is the pattern of life.

06:45

How is your life described? If your life is described by these, then this is how you should be described.

06:55

Let's take a look at these. We see the first characteristic that's mentioned is blameless.

07:00

This is in 1 Timothy 3 .2 and verse 10, also in Titus 1 .7.

07:07

So this is repeated three times and refers to both elders or pastors and also servants whether male or female.

07:17

It literally means that one cannot lay hold of. It's sometimes translated above reproach.

07:25

This is a must. It has the idea of unrebukable.

07:31

This does not mean that a man must be perfect for no one to be qualified if that's the case, but it is the idea that no one has anything they can nail against a person.

07:44

It is the idea that they are not covering up some sin, but they are quick to reconcile.

07:50

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.

08:07

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.

08:18

Any person that came to church that was in court when he was found guilty of drunk driving would immediately realize that this person had something that could be held against him.

08:32

He had stepped down and basically said family issues. Well, that was a way out, but I felt he was not qualified.

08:41

There was another person who was in ministry and he basically had an addiction to pornography.

08:50

He stepped down because of the busyness of life from ministry and he also,

08:56

I would say, was not qualified to reenter ministry because he did not admit to the porn addiction that he had.

09:04

It was something where stepping down, you don't have to be completely public or go into more detail than needed.

09:12

But if you want to be qualified for ministry, I would say that you must be blameless.

09:19

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.

09:27

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.

09:36

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 blameless.

09:50

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.

10:00

A second qualification that we see is temperate. We see this in 1 Timothy 3, verses 2 and 11.

10:09

It's repeated twice. It refers to both pastors and female servants. By the way,

10:15

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.

10:24

And the Greek word here for temperate actually means wineless or unmixed with wine.

10:32

It means sober or temperate. Someone who is abstaining from wine.

10:38

Whether or not they're, the issue that we have here is that they're not given over to alcohol.

10:46

In other words, they're not getting drunk often. This is used as a way of describing someone that's self -controlled.

10:55

Now keep in mind in the first century, wine was different than the wine that we would have today.

11:01

Wine was something to basically purify the water. And so people did drink a wine, it didn't have as much alcohol content as we have today.

11:10

But the reality is they did have alcohol. I can't believe you said that.

11:15

Yes, some people believe that no one had alcohol and that the wine would have been so watered down that there was no alcohol content.

11:25

That's actually not true. But the alcohol served a purpose in killing the dysentery in the water.

11:31

What we see here is that the word here has the idea of self -controlled or level -headed. Not someone who rushes in to something without thinking it through.

11:43

That's the idea of temperate. Third characteristic that we have is the one of sober -minded.

11:52

Sober -minded we see in 1 Timothy 3 .2, also in Titus 1 .8.

11:58

It is repeated twice and refers only to pastors. The Greek word has the meaning of a sound mind, sane in one's senses, or the idea of curbing one's desires or impulses.

12:15

So it's the idea of being self -controlled or temperate. An elder needs to be having a character of self -discipline.

12:25

He needs to be one characterized by discipline in his priorities, in the use of his time, and in his duties of service.

12:34

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.

12:48

If one is temperate and sober -minded in his thinking, it will result in self -discipline.

12:55

Now let's look at the fourth one. This is a good behavior. We see this in 1 Timothy 3 .2.

13:01

It's only used of pastors in that passage. And the Greek word means well -arranged, seemly, or modest.

13:10

Its basic meaning is to be orderly. His well -disciplined mind leads to a well -disciplined life.

13:19

The pastor needs to be organized by nature. If a pastor is not organized, the many duties of his calling are going to be neglected.

13:29

And so he has to be of good behavior, well -organized. Let's move on to the fifth one, and that's hospitable.

13:37

This is seen in 1 Timothy 3 .2, Titus 1 .8. We see this repeated those two times, referring to pastors.

13:46

The Greek word here is one that is a compound word for to love and strangers.

13:56

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.

14:08

Being hospitable to our friends, well that makes sense. We like them. But how hospitable are you?

14:15

How much love do you show toward strangers? People you don't really know. That would be a characteristic of a pastor.

14:23

Number six would be not given too much wine. This one gets kind of interesting.

14:29

We see this in 1 Timothy 3 .3, 1 Timothy 3 .8, and Titus 1 .7.

14:35

This refers to both pastors, in both Timothy and Titus, and to male servants.

14:43

It's interesting because not given too wine in 1 Timothy 3 .3 is a single word which literally means not a slave to alcohol.

14:55

The reason I say it's interesting is because it is stated as not given too wine for pastors and not given too much wine for deacons.

15:06

Therefore some try to make a distinction as if deacons somehow can have a little bit of wine but pastors can't have any.

15:14

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 suffered the effects of dysentery in the water.

15:29

You can see this in 2 Timothy 5 .23. However, the purpose of wine was to kill the bacteria.

15:37

We don't have that issue in America today. But this goes, I think, beyond just the issue of wine.

15:43

I think it addresses the issue of wine, drugs, gambling, pornography, work, gossip, being addicted to food.

15:53

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.

16:04

Qualification number 7 is not violent. We see this in 1

16:09

Timothy 3 .3, also in Titus 1 .7. Used twice, both to refer to pastors, the

16:16

Greek word literally means not a striker. An elder or pastor is one who should express himself not by acts of violence or anger.

16:31

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.

16:41

A pastor must be a peacemaker, not a problem creator. An elder must be one who reacts to difficulty without physical violence.

16:53

He must not settle disputes with blows. He must react calmly, coolly, and gently.

17:00

You can see this in a cross reference from 2 Timothy 2 .24 -25.

17:05

I knew of a pastor who I would say was disqualified from ministry because he was always ready to get into a fight.

17:14

Now, sometimes we see that people are willing to get into a fight physically, as the man

17:20

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,

17:30

I think that also might disqualify a man for pastor. Number 8, not greedy for money.

17:38

We see this in 1 Timothy 3 .3, 1 Timothy 3 .8, and Titus 1 .7.

17:44

So this refers to both pastors and male servants, and the Greek word has the meaning of being eager or greedy for money.

17:54

It has the idea of someone who is a lover of money. Not money itself, but what money can obtain for a person.

18:03

Paul says in 1 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 is given over to sinful desires of money for the use of what they can gain from it.

18:24

This includes those tele -evangelists who prey on the poor to take advantage of their weaknesses and their illnesses to obtain money for themselves.

18:34

They are disqualified from ministry. Yes, I just called out

18:40

Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, and the rest of the lot who prey on the poor so that they can get money for themselves.

18:50

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.

18:58

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.

19:11

Number nine, gentle. This we see in 1

19:16

Timothy 3 .3. It's only used of pastors there, and the Greek word means seemingly suitable for fair -minded gentle moderate.

19:30

It describes a person who is considerate, forbearing, gracious, who easily pardons human failure.

19:43

Such a person remembers the good and not the evil. He does not keep a list of wrongs, as we see in 1

19:50

Corinthians 13 when it talks about love. He does not keep a list of wrongs done to him.

19:55

He does not hold a grudge. Many men leave ministry because they cannot accept criticism, and a pastor when wronged must have no thought of retaliation.

20:07

That's the idea here. He must be someone who is not going to hold a grudge against another.

20:16

He's gentle. Number ten in our qualification list is seen in 1

20:22

Timothy 3 .3. It is the idea of not quarrelsome. Now this is used of pastors, and it's literally in the

20:31

Greek translated not a brawler or contentious. So you're uncontentious.

20:37

It means not to be withstood. Invincible, not contentious, abstaining from fighting.

20:46

It refers not so much to physical violence as to a quarrelsome person.

20:54

To have a contentious person in leadership will result in disunity and disharmony, seriously hindering the effectiveness of that leadership.

21:06

This is one who loves to engage in non -physical aggression. One who is contentious and displays anger through words or aimed at people.

21:19

It's important for an elder not to carry this characteristic into ministry because a pastor who will have many opportunities to abuse the privilege of the pulpit in order to contend with someone he disagrees with is a sinful thing.

21:41

It is a sin against God to be a quarrelsome man.

21:48

And so if you're going to be qualified for ministry, you should be someone who is not seeking to get into a fight.

21:55

In other words, really simple. Are you willing to trust God with your disputes?

22:01

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.

22:11

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.

22:30

Number 11 in our qualifications that we see in 1 Timothy 3 .3

22:36

is not covetous. This is used only once of pastors and the

22:41

Greek word carries the meaning of someone who is free from the love of money, not greedy.

22:48

That's important because we see many men, those televangelists I mentioned already, who love money and they do what they do because they can get more money out of it.

23:02

That's a disqualification. If you have a love for money, you do not have a love for what

23:10

God calls us to. Now number 12 is a good testimony or a good reputation.

23:19

We see this in 1 Timothy 3 .7 and 8. It is used twice, refers to both pastors and servants, female servants by the way.

23:29

The Greek word means a record, a report, a testimony, a witness.

23:37

The Greek words for testimony and reputation are based on the same root word that we get our

23:43

English word martyr from. A pastor's character should be certified by the testimony of outsiders of the church.

23:53

A man chosen to lead the church must maintain a reputation in the community for righteousness, moral character, love, kindness, generosity, and goodness.

24:04

They must be men of integrity and above reproach in their community.

24:10

There are some people who don't have any reputation in the community because they're not involved with unbelievers.

24:17

How do unbelievers view the pastor? That may actually play into whether they're qualified for ministry or not.

24:28

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

24:35

The 5 Solas Podcast. A weekly podcast hosted by James Watkins that is dedicated to the

24:42

Reformed theological distinctives and their continued relevance for the church and world today. Grace alone, faith alone,

24:50

Christ alone, Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. Join us each episode to discuss the truths of these foundational rallying cries of the

25:00

Protestant Reformers, the prophetic challenge they present, and the sound wisdom they provide. As we delve into their biblical meaning and theological significance and reflect upon and appropriate their truths, we will be engaging issues in the church and world.

25:15

Each week, from the rich insight of Reformation Christianity, we will be showing all the manifold ways in which this material helps challenge and direct the current church in its life of worship and witness and confront the idols of our age with biblical discernment and a sound apologetic in a manner that is as open and transparent as possible while challenging you to seek the glory of God in all that you do.

25:41

Sola Deo Gloria Hey, I'm Daryl and I'm here with my wife,

25:47

Karen. What's up? And we're the hosts of the What Are We Even Doing Here podcast. The podcast that seeks to answer the question that we all ask,

25:54

What are we even doing here? We cover topics such as marriage, family, life, and living a

25:59

Christian life in this crazy world. We don't have all the answers, but we know where to look. Subscribe to us on iTunes and follow us on SoundCloud as we seek the kingdom of God and find out what we are even doing here.

26:12

Grace and peace. Alright, so continuing on, we have our next characteristic that we see as we go through our list of characteristics.

26:25

And the next one that we have is one that is described as not self -willed.

26:34

This is in Titus 1 -7. Not self -willed is used of pastors.

26:40

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 asserts his own rights but is reckless to the rights, feelings, or interests of others.

27:09

He regards his life with no respect to other people.

27:16

The world usually looks to aggressive, self -assertive people for leadership.

27:23

However, those characteristics disqualify a man for leadership in the church where a self -willed man has no place.

27:32

Every believer and certainly every church leader must continually fight the battle against the flesh of self -will, self -fulfillment, and self -glory.

27:47

Another characteristic that we see number 14 is not quick -tempered.

27:53

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.

28:04

This refers to a person that is not easily provoked to anger.

28:11

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.

28:31

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.

28:43

In other words, he's willing to allow people to fail. He can work with others in kindness and patience and gratitude.

28:52

He can allow dedicated but inexperienced people around him to fail until they learn to succeed.

29:04

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.

29:16

This is really hard for some leaders because they really think no one should be allowed to fail.

29:21

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.

29:42

Number 15 in our qualifications for church leaders is a lover of what is good.

29:48

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.

30:10

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.

30:22

Just has the idea it's referred to as toward pastors and the

30:27

Greek word is a common word in the New Testament which means just or right and it denotes that which is proper, right, and fitting.

30:38

It is frequently rendered righteousness and so a pastor is going to be someone who is described by being just.

30:50

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.

31:02

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

31:34

God calls him to do. This is the idea of holy. By the way, it's where we get the word saint from.

31:41

Also in Titus 1 .8 we have the 18th characteristic that we look at and that is self -controlled.

31:53

Self -controlled is referred to pastors. The Greek word has the meaning of mastering, controlling, curbing, restraining, controlling oneself, temperate or disciplined.

32:08

A pastor lives an exemplary life on the outside he submits to the

32:15

Holy Spirit's control on the inside. A pastor who is not self -controlled who does not continually monitor his own life submitting to sin or to the

32:28

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.

32:45

The self -controlled pastor walks with God in integrity of his heart.

32:51

He has that continual grace of God working in his life to the degree that he is spiritually mature and morally pure.

33:05

My seminary professor used to say this, you are who you are when you are alone with God.

33:13

Many people put on a show a person who is not self -controlled is going to put on a show for people but he is not qualified for ministry.

33:22

We have a couple that are in the area of characteristics of character issues that refer only to the deacons.

33:31

Let's look at those now. We look at number 19 and that's reverent.

33:38

It's used twice, both of male and female servants or deacons. The Greek word has the meaning of worthy of honor or reverence.

33:47

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.

33:58

A servant will be working in the realm often of the mundane and in the realm of assisting people.

34:07

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.

34:27

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

34:40

Lord and so they have a reverence. Number 20 and again only referring to the deacons or servants is not double -tongued.

34:50

We see this in 1 Timothy 3 .8 and this one is one that refers to the female servants.

34:59

The word only appears in the New Testament once and literally means to speak out of both sides of your mouth.

35:10

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.

35:23

In other words, someone who doesn't like to talk about others. A deacon's speech must not be hypocritical but be characterized by integrity consistency and honesty.

35:38

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.

35:54

They would be double -tongued and not qualified for leadership within a church.

36:01

Number 21 is 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

36:15

and it is the idea of 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

36:30

Holy Spirit's control in every area of their life. That is a description that they would have.

36:38

We also see number 22 in Acts 6 .3 is full of wisdom.

36:44

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.

36:57

They must have biblical and theological understanding and knowledge and the practical wisdom to apply those biblical truths to situations in everyday life.

37:13

They must be men and women that are sober and righteous in judgment. This is the idea of being full of wisdom.

37:22

One more that we see speaking of specifically the female deacons in 1

37:29

Timothy 3 .11 is not slanderous. The Greek word means slanderer malice gossip backbiting.

37:40

When used in the singular noun form it always is translated as Satan.

37:47

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.

38:02

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.

38:16

Another one that we see for the female deacons is faithful in all things. We see this in 1

38:22

Timothy 3 .11 and the Greek word here has the meaning of being trustworthy or faithful in everything.

38:32

They must be absolutely trustworthy in all areas of life and ministry.

38:38

These women are those who can be given a job and you can rest in the fact that they will get it done.

38:47

We see many extremes of faithfulness particularly as it relates to the tensions between home and the church.

38:55

Some women get involved in their homes so much so that they fail to minister to those outside of their family.

39:03

Then you find some who are so involved in ministry and the local church that they neglect their duties of a wife and mother.

39:12

Faithfulness in all things means that you have a balanced approach to both family and ministry.

39:22

Now those are all the qualities that we would look at under the category of character.

39:29

Now we move into those qualities that we'll put in the category of ministry.

39:36

When we look at here and as we're counting our characteristics this would be number 25 able to teach.

39:44

We see this in 1 Timothy 3 2. We see this referring to pastors and the

39:51

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.

40:08

This gives us the idea that a pastor is to teach but a pastor must be highly skilled as a teacher.

40:15

One who is gifted in that way who works hard at his studies and proclamation.

40:24

That is one who is qualified is set apart from the deacons in the fact that he is apt to teach.

40:33

Teaching by the way is not just giving lots of information. Teaching is something that is able to communicate ideas to a listener.

40:45

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.

40:55

That's a good teacher. This is a major part of being a pastor is that he is a teacher.

41:01

He can communicate God's word. We see not a novice or proven we see this in 1

41:08

Timothy 3 .6 and 1 Timothy 3 .10 It's used of both pastors and of male servants and the

41:17

Greek word is literally not a novice. It appears in the New Testament as literally meaning not newly planted.

41:27

It refers to trees as a metaphor. Not being a newly planted tree.

41:34

We actually get the word from this Greek word. We get the English word neophyte from it. It doesn't refer to age meaning a younger person.

41:43

It doesn't mean that if you're a younger person you're not qualified. It refers to spiritual immaturity or spiritual maturity.

41:52

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.

42:02

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.

42:11

I have seen that countless times where people get rushed into ministry and they're novices.

42:18

They're new to the faith but they have unnatural leadership abilities and they're rushed into seminary.

42:23

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.

42:32

They're not tested or trustworthy. And so one must be a more spiritual person to be qualified as a pastor or a deacon.

42:46

Another characteristic related to ministry is holding fast to the faithful word or holding to the mystery of faith.

42:57

We see this in Titus 1 .9 and 1 Timothy 3 .9 Now this appears in two different phrases but has kind of the same idea.

43:06

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.

43:17

This is the idea of loving God's word living His word, teaching

43:23

His word and being faithful to God's word. It's more than mere head knowledge.

43:31

It is understanding the details of sound doctrine but includes practically living it out.

43:39

Now with that we move into characteristics that we could say are part of the family.

43:47

Now this first one I would actually categorize for the pastors as a characteristic of character but for the deacons as one of family.

43:58

But it does have a play in both. It is the idea of a one woman man or as it's translated husband of one wife.

44:10

We see this in 1st Timothy 3 .2 and verse 12. It's used for both male deacons and pastors.

44:17

Obviously not using for the female. The phrase in the Greek literally means a one woman man and it talks really about the character of a pastor or servant or deacon as we would say toward his wife.

44:31

In other words it is not addressing the divorce and remarriage issue because a man that is has the idea of that he is devoted to one woman the woman he's married to that's the idea of this.

44:51

This would mean that a man is not looking at other women. He's not desiring other men and women.

44:57

This would include the issue of pornography. Someone who's given over to staring at other women or fantasizing of other women would be disqualified for the pastorate or deacon.

45:09

A man who's eye follows a woman who's not his wife as she walks by is guilty of not being a one woman man.

45:18

Now this is one that I would say is a characteristic of his character. He should not be desiring other women but this also refers to the issue of family in the sense that he must have a desire for the woman he's married to.

45:37

What if he's not married? Then he shouldn't be having a straying eye looking at others.

45:44

Also when it comes to the family we see number 29.

45:50

He rules his house well. We see this in 1 Timothy 3 .4 and 3 .12

45:55

and this refers to both pastors and male deacons. The Greek word here that we see is rules meaning to manage or preside or have authority over.

46:07

The phrase for rule defines someone who presides over or administrates or manages a house well.

46:15

And the word has the idea that he is going to be someone who's a good administrator.

46:22

It doesn't mean he does everything but he manages it.

46:28

He's ultimately responsible. It is interesting to note that the household here is more than children.

46:36

This we end up seeing illustrated in Ephesians 5 and 6. In the culture here it would include servants that would be in the house.

46:46

It includes your spouse. So we end up seeing here the idea of ruling your house well is the idea of management.

46:55

If you can't manage your own house how can you manage the things of God? The last characteristic that we look at is number 30.

47:05

That's right, we had 30 characteristics and by the way folks we should be looking to apply all 30 of these in our lives.

47:13

The last one is having children in submission with all reverence or as it's also stated is ruling their children well.

47:22

We see this in 1 Timothy 3 .4 and 3 .12. This again is toward pastors and male deacons and when we look at this we see that it is he must be able to control them.

47:38

The truth of ruling is directly associated to the candidate's children, to the pastor's children or deacon's children.

47:47

It's not a control of fear but a control of respect and love brought about by biblical means in controlling a child's behavior and attitude.

47:59

In other words, this is not one where the child is afraid of the man but he loves the person so he must be able to control them out of a love they want to obey him.

48:11

A second thing that we see here is that they must be in submission to him. I know, this term has been really misapplied in our day and age, but it is the idea that they submit to his authority, they obey.

48:29

A third aspect of this is that he must treat them with dignity, with reverence.

48:36

This is important for the pastor or for the deacon for two reasons.

48:41

One, he is to be an example and two, this would be an example of how well he manages the church.

48:51

If he can't manage his house and his children don't have any respect for him, how could people in the church have respect for him?

48:58

If you have a pastor who browbeats or ridicules his own children, chances are someone like that will do so to the members of the church as well, given the chance.

49:11

If you have someone who does not get involved in the life of their own children, chances are they're not going to get involved in the life of members of the church.

49:22

What we've given you here in this less than one hour is 30 different characteristics that we could classify in their character issues, their ministry issues, their family issues.

49:35

This should be something all of us, whether we're in leadership in a church or not, aspire to be someone that is characterized by these 30 characteristics.

49:49

It's something we should all desire to have whether we are in leadership or not.

49:57

But if you are looking at someone who may come into leadership, maybe you have a candidate for pastor or deacon, this is something you should be looking for.

50:06

Again, if you want to get a quick reference card on this, go to our store at strivingforeturning .org. You can get the card there, the quick reference card.

50:15

Look through them. We have all the scripture references there. If you have a church that is looking to have maybe you have some people you want to have as pastors or deacons, may this be something you look at as a list to say, this is what someone should have if we're going to count them as a pastor or deacon in our church.

50:42

It's a good suggestion, by the way, because we need to have qualified people in the position of leadership or we're really going to have a church that's going to fail in the end.

50:54

I hope this was helpful for you. Let me give some shout -outs real quick, just as reminders.

51:01

If you want to share this episode or any episode of The Wrap Report this month of April, and hashtag wrapreport on any social media, you will get a copy or get entered into getting a copy of The Marriage Pyramid by Pastor and Doctor Danny Purvis.

51:21

Now, if you share the episode that I did back in March with him, you will get two chances to win.

51:28

Just saying, you may want to share that one. With that, folks, let me just let you know, we will be headed to the

51:36

Philippines, or I will be headed to the Philippines with Justin Peters. Justin and I are headed to the

51:41

Philippines. I will be dealing with several different topics, doing several different conferences while I'm out there. In Manila, I will be dealing with the topic of church discipline.

51:52

I will be doing a conference just for pastors, and we will do an in -depth instruction on church discipline, something not very often talked about.

52:03

We will also have a conference or seminar on open air evangelism that I will lead while in Manila.

52:11

Then we will have a conference that Justin Peters and I will do on the topic of discernment.

52:17

We will cover a lot of topics there. We will do that topic both in Manila and in Cebu as we will fly out there.

52:25

Why do I mention this to you? Folks, these churches cannot afford to bring us out to them, and so we need your help.

52:34

We are going there by your donations. If you're willing to help us to get there, you can donate.

52:42

Go to strivingforeternity .org slash donate. You can go through PayPal, Patreon, or whatever method we have there to donate to us, to help us get to these countries that are filled with New Apostolic Reformation, Word of Faith, Roman Catholicism, in other words, anything but the true gospel.

53:03

We want to get the true gospel out there. You could help us get there. If you could donate any amount, whether it's a one -time gift or if you could give monthly, that would be a great support.

53:14

If you give monthly, let me let you know what we're doing. If you give $2 a month, we will send you a free copy of What Do We Believe?

53:24

If you can give $5 a month, you will get What Do We Believe? plus What Do They Believe?

53:31

If you can give $10 a month, you will get the two books I mentioned, plus On the

53:37

Origin of Kinds. If you could give $20 a month, we will give you those three books, plus the book

53:45

Sharing the Good News with Mormons. If you care to give $25 a month, what we're going to look to do is give that away.

53:52

We want to look for missionaries that we can bless. We're going to look to give them podcasting equipment that they might be able to do a podcast with their supporting churches so that they could be better tied to their local church that's supporting them.

54:09

We think a podcast is a better way than an email. We will give them the equipment and the hosting for one year if you commit to giving $25 a month for a year.

54:20

Those are some ways you can help out. If you found this episode helpful, will you share it with others?

54:26

Make sure they subscribe because that's one of the best ways you can help us. Also, write a review for us on iTunes.

54:34

The link is in the show notes because we'll read those online and we will give a shout out. By the way,

54:40

I mentioned that one -star review. Maybe some of you can give a more fair and representative review than someone who's just a hater.

54:49

Give us a review. Let us know what you think. It doesn't help our ratings at all in iTunes, but boy does it help me when

54:57

I sit behind a microphone every week and don't know what you guys are thinking.

55:02

When I read those reviews, especially some of those ones that tell us how this ministry is impacting you and this podcast is impacting you, it goes far in encouraging my heart.

55:14

So think about doing that. We thank you. We will be dropping some more of our bonus episodes from the

55:22

Sanctification Through Suffering Conference with Pastor Frank Mullis and Justin Peters.

55:28

We'll be dropping those as bonus episodes. I have an episode coming up next.

55:34

It is going to be tremendous. We're going to deal again with the issue of qualifications of a pastor, but I'm going to have my friend

55:40

Virgil Walker come on with me. We're going to talk about specifically the issue of divorce and the qualification of a pastor.

55:47

Hope you look forward to that. Make sure you subscribe so you get that episode. Until next week, remember to strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.

55:59

This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar to your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.