“CALLED TO SERVE; QUALIFIED TO LEAD”
SCRIPTURE: I Timothy 2:8 - 3:13
For 19 years I was a member of a Nazarene church, which had about 60 people in average attendance, when I started attending. I watched it skyrocket from 60 to a peak of 140, and back down to 30. There were many reasons for the rise and demise of the congregation, but one was the church logo, “Love, acceptance, and forgiveness”. “What’s wrong with that?” you might ask. The Bible teaches those values, certainly. But the same book teaches accountability, standards of conduct, and keeping doctrinal unity. Those concepts went right out the window in the enthusiasm of the moment, when newcomers ignorant of our church doctrines and standards rushed to join in on the euphoria of a new building project. We welcomed complete strangers---anyone and everyone with open arms, no questions asked, and elevated damaged and novice Christians to positions of leadership overnight. Shortly after their arrival we had newcomers doing special music, serving on the worship team, ushering, and teaching Sunday School who we’d never personally met. Many of those volunteers didn’t have a clue what our church believed in or had never heard of the Rules of Christian Conduct, but that didn’t matter; we loved, accepted and forgave them blindly in the name of growing the church of God. I needn’t tell you that blind acceptance and hiding the church flag turned out to be costly in the end, for sooner or later the issues that drove many newcomers to leave their former churches behind followed them to our church. Hurting people who remain unhealed, hurt others and re-injure themselves. In hindsight, we got the first part right, that every Christian is called to serve, to minister the love of God in practical ways inside and outside the church building. Everyone has spiritual gifting, natural talents, time, and a degree of health----resources to freely minister in some appropriate ways. Many of our newcomers were willing to serve. Willingness can sometimes be a scarce commodity with older Christians who are tired out from years of service. But willingness is not enough. There also needs to be a degree of readiness, that those who want to help in God’s work are motivated by the right intentions, that the timing is right to become involved, and that a minimal level of emotional and spiritual maturity is present. As leaders in the church, we just ignored all these things and said, in effect, “Welcome. We don’t care who you are or what you’ve done, if you’re willing to serve here in this church, just name it, and our answer is ‘yes’.” What a mistake that was!
Our scripture today builds on the concept that every Christian is qualified to serve God and people in some way, place and time. But it goes further, to give a meticulous job description for those who want to serve in a church leadership role. Cleaning the church, shovelling snow, cutting grass, repairing the facility, printing bulletins, preparing pot luck dishes, etc. are examples of valuable service that anyone can render, but they’re not visible leadership roles. Everyone who loves the Lord is qualified to serve, but not all are qualified to lead. You’ve heard the saying, “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” In a small church there isn’t room at the top for everyone to lead. It would be tremendously inefficient, for example, to have all of you sit on the church board. Furthermore, no leaders can succeed without many loyal followers who are devoted and committed to serving their leader. God needs both leaders and servers, and they are equally valued in His sight.
I. QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEN TO SERVE
1. Prayerfulness (2: 8)
The early church carried on the Jewish tradition that people were to pray standing, with hands outstretched, palms upward. Even today, some pastors will ask the congregation to stand, out of respect for God, as the pastoral prayer is given. The Jews knew well the many barriers to God hearing and responding to a man’s prayers. In Isaiah 1:15, we read, “When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are full of blood.” So when Paul says that men everywhere should pray with holy hands uplifted, he’s preaching holiness as a requirement to enter the presence of God. Come into the presence of God with clean hands uplifted, symbolic of sins forgiven and forsaken. To serve in the church, men need to be faithful in prayer. Many men are great at working and putting our job responsibilities ahead of family and relationships. We are wired to be doers, but somehow we relegate prayer to the women and the seniors, as if we have more practical productive things to do with our time. When you think of prayer warriors you know, aren’t they more often women that come to mind? And which gender is the majority at church prayer meetings? Men, if you want God to use you, be a man of daily prayer.
2. Control of temper (2:8)
“Without wrath”, are Paul’s words. He doesn’t mean that guys aren’t allowed to get angry, but that you get over it quickly, and don’t nurse it, feed resentment, and vindictive feelings. Let go of anger quickly, or you’ll end up blowing up and do things you later regret.
3. Agreeableness: Control of tongue (2:8)
The Greek word here means “arguing”, which some translations misconstrue as “doubting”. A man who is prone to argue is one who is too insecure to let others have the last word, or to concede that he might be wrong. Winning the debate is the only thing that matters. But in winning the argument, and by arguing about things that are not important, he alienates himself from those he wants to serve. A man who wishes to serve God and His church has self-control of his tongue, and can let others have the final say.
II QUALIFICATIONS FOR WOMEN TO SERVE
Verses 9-15 give a loose job description for Christian women. It’s important to note that Paul is writing specific instructions at a time when both Jewish and Greek cultures placed women very low in social status. For example, a man went to the synagogue to learn, but at most, a woman came to hear. Women were forbidden to teach in school, even the youngest of children. Women were allowed to enter the synagogue with men, but they had to sit in a separate section with the children. When the responsive reading was done, only the men in the congregation were permitted to speak, for to allow the women to respond was to “lessen the honor of the congregation”. Paul knew all these silly prejudices were strongly embedded in the culture from which the first converts came. You can’t change culture over night, so he made a temporary accommodation of cultural ignorance in the interest of retaining and reaching new converts. There are many cultural values or traditions we hold today which we too accept or tolerate, realizing that we can’t bring rapid change for the better. The fact that we agree to put up with it doesn’t mean we like it or approve of it, but we agree to live with it for the time being, and work for change down the road. This is what Paul did, for we have his conclusion about men and women in Galations, where he comes out in the open and states, “ In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal.”
1. Modesty of Dress (v. 9,10)
The Greek mystery religions of Paul’s day followed a well-known inscription which read: “A consecrated woman shall not have gold ornaments, no rouge, nor face-whitening, nor a head band, nor braided hair, nor shoes, except those made of felt or the skins of sacrificed animals.” In Corinth, the temple prostitutes identified themselves by shaving their heads, so Paul told the Christian women there to not cut off their long hair. Today, street workers in the red-light districts have a different code of dress from the average woman, to let men know that they are available. The cross-cultural principle here is that Christian women don’t dress in such a way as to advertise values and practices which are not compatible with true Christian faith and practice. Don’t dress in a way that contradicts who you profess to be.
2. Respect for church leaders (v. 11-14)
Some have taken this passage as an argument against women teaching in the church. Again, there is a context which is overlooked by those who take this viewpoint. In the early church, the women were seated separately from their husbands on the opposite side of the sanctuary. Their culture restricted them from getting the same schooling as the guys, much like the Taliban is doing today. So when women were sitting in church, hearing for the first time new and controversial Christian teachings, it was only natural for them in their confusion to question their learned husbands on what they thought about these new ideas. Rather than waiting until they got home, the wives were calling over to their husbands and asking what they thought about what had just been spoken from the pulpit---an on going discussion and banter going back and forth between these 2 sides, right in the middle of the service. It was frustrating for those officiating or preaching to have this kind of disruption going on. So Paul says, ‘You women be quiet while at church. You’re a novice bunch too full of questions to be teaching anybody about this new faith. Just sit and listen for now, and take care of your first priority, which is your family: bearing and raising your kids.”
Then Paul looks for scriptural support for letting the men teach, and the only explanation he could come up with was that female gender was the first to blow it in the garden of Eden, so why not give the male gender a chance to lead---which they did, and we know that history shows the men blew it too. But early church history will show that women were allowed to be teachers in other locations and settings: Mary trained her son Jesus; Priscilla, along with her husband Aquila, was a valued teacher who led Apollos to faith.(Acts 18:26) Euodia and Syntyche, in spite of their quarrel were recognized labourers in the Gospel (Phil. 4:2,3). Philip the evangelist had 4 daughters who were prophetesses (Acts 21:9) Senior women were encouraged to teach the younger women (Titus 2:3). Paul refers to Timothy’s mother and grandmother with words of high honor (II Tim. 1:5) Lydia hosted a house-church in her own home (Acts. 16:14, 40)
3. Parenting a Priority
When Paul writes that women will be saved by child-bearing, he’s not proposing a new or separate way for women to be saved. The scholars believe that women were only too aware of their second class status, that Eve, representing the female side of the human race, had led the entire world into judgment. Chauvinist men aplenty were happy to rub that fact in their faces. Christian women wanted to redeem themselves in some way, to earn merit in the eyes of their male counterparts. Why not save face by taking a leadership role as teachers in this new religion? Paul’s answer? “You don’t need to be teaching anybody. By being responsible for bringing children into the world and teaching them, that’s more than enough to redeem yourself in the eyes of God. There’s no need to burden yourself by teaching, which is going beyond your primary duty, taking care of your family.”
4. Demonstrate the Fruit of the Spirit (v. 15)
A woman who desires to serve the work of Christ is one who shows forth the fruits of the Spirit: a pattern of faithfulness, love, self-control, and holiness
III QUALIFICATIONS FOR PASTORS
Depending on your translation, 3:1 introduces the job description for what we call a pastor. The word used in Greek means an overseer or a superintendent of a congregation. The NT Greek titles for this position were used interchangeably: “bishop” or “elder”. In our denomination, ministers are ordained as elders, which has nothing to do with my age, I might add. Regarding the personal qualifications of a pastor, Paul gives an identical list in his letter to Titus.
1. A good reputation (v. 2)
- “blameless’, “must not give people a reason to criticize him’ (NCV). The pastor’s image and track record should be a positive one to those inside the church.
- “of good behaviour” (NCV) or respected
- a good reputation outside the church in the community at large (v. 9)
2. A one-woman man (v. 2)
Some misinterpreted this verse in the past to say that people like myself couldn’t pastor. If you were divorced or widowed and then married again, you were ineligible to preach. But there was lots of divorce going on at the time this was written. Some mistakenly thought that “the husband of one wife” meant that single men were ineligible for pastoral duty, that you had to be married. Certainly that is a huge help when married to the right woman, but Paul himself was an itinerant preacher with no wife. What Paul means is that no polygamist can be the spiritual leader of a church. That clearly identifies what was going on in Bountiful BC as a non-Christian cult. It also eliminates an pastor who engages in adultery in any of it’s widespread forms.
3. Self-controlled (v. 2) A sign of maturity, as children are born without this essential trait. A man with addictions or impulsiveness of any kind will not command the respect of his followers. The example given in v. 3 is the use of alcohol. “He must not drink too much wine or like to fight.” Those two impulse behaviours often go hand in hand, don’t they? If Paul wrote today, he might add other addictions as examples of areas where control or abstinence is needed by pastors: drugs, pornography, gambling, food, chat lines, video gaming
4. Sober minded or wise (v.2) Wisdom is a spiritual gift from God, and one which God promises to those who ask Him. Often where you find spiritual wisdom in someone, you will find that he or she has walked many years with God. It’s a rarity in new converts
5. Hospitable (v. 2) This doesn’t mean I need to know how to cook (I hope), but it means welcoming and being open to having others drop into your home---not stand-offish and aloof. Hopefully you all know that you are free to drop in at the parsonage if you see our vehicles at home, assuming it’s a reasonable time of the day. We usually aren’t in on Mondays as that is our day off.
6. Gentle and Peaceable (v. 3) Not quarrelsome with others
7. A good spiritual leader in his home (v. 4-5)
8. A seasoned Christian (v. 6), not a new convert. A pastor needs experience and time to develop spiritually before leading others. At age 24, fresh out of seminary, I planned to go into Bible college teaching. My mentoring pastor cautioned me, saying that I needed to pastor a church first, before I go teaching others how to do Christian ministry. That was good advice, which I took, and I think helped me be a more practical and realistic instructor to my students.
Would you like my job? Are you qualified to be a pastor? Am I? No, but God makes His strength perfect and complete in our areas of weakness. He fills in the gaps by giving the pastor good people, and a compatible mate, to offset what is missing. I never felt adequate as a counsellor. I don’t feel adequate as a pastor, but I believe that in our inadequacy God makes up the difference so that we become adequate leaders, thanks to His supplementing strength. The same goes for lay leaders.
IV QUALIFICATIONS FOR LAY LEADERS
We refer to recognized lay leaders in the Nazarene church by “deacon” or “deaconess”. Four of the same criteria for pastors are given for lay leaders in Paul’s list
1. A good reputation (10) “Being found blameless” ; “Let them serve as deacons if you find nothing wrong with them.” A good track record
2. Faithfulness to your “one and only”, if you are married (v. 12) He or she needs to back up your ministry efforts with mature character: Your spouse needs to be supportive, respectful, self-controlled, trustworthy, and not prone to speak badly of others (v. 11)
3. A good spiritual leader in your home (v. 12)
4. Self-controlled (v. 8)
“They must not drink too much wine try to get rich by cheating others.” Why would Paul give these examples of impulse-control disorders to Timothy? Because they were real issues in the early church. New converts came into the church, bringing their addictions with them. Some were notorious drunks. Others couldn’t resist the temptation of a bargain deal, and were known for their shrewd ability to rip others off for the almighty dollar. The challenge of learning to be content with what we have is a lifelong one for many. Human nature hasn’t changed all that much in 2000 years.
5. Honest (v. 8)
“not deceitful” or “double-tongued” (KJV), “not saying things they do not mean.” (NCV). I like to pick on the politicians as examples of people who make a living at telling others what they want to hear. But let’s be fair: some counsellors, salesmen, and even preachers are good at this. Call it flattery or two-faced, it’s a trait that is widespread across all professions. And when someone says things they do not mean, they lose your trust and credibility, don’t they? You can’t be an effective representative of Jesus Christ, unless you have the integrity to always speak the truth in love.
6. Maintain a clear conscience (v. 9)
A clear conscience doesn’t mean you are on the right side of an issue, but it means that you are walking in the amount of light you have at the moment, and that you will sleep well at night. And if you’re on the wrong side of the fence on an issue, be open to God showing you that in His perfect timing.
