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Qualifications for Church Leadership


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#1 Travis G.

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 06:04 PM

I'm interested in what the C&MA's criteria for their ordained ministers is. It's safe to assume 1 Timothy 3 is a good starting point for such requirements but what about what's not mentioned. Like is it ok to be single or do you have to be married? And everyone would hopefully agree that a minister in the C&MA wouldn't be living in sin and accepting it as fine but we all struggle with sin but are there sin's that would disqualify someone from ministry for merely struggling with it. For example sexual immorality or drug and alcohol abuse.

#2 Hazael

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 08:33 PM

I'm interested in what the C&MA's criteria for their ordained ministers is. It's safe to assume 1 Timothy 3 is a good starting point for such requirements but what about what's not mentioned. Like is it ok to be single or do you have to be married? And everyone would hopefully agree that a minister in the C&MA wouldn't be living in sin and accepting it as fine but we all struggle with sin but are there sin's that would disqualify someone from ministry for merely struggling with it. For example sexual immorality or drug and alcohol abuse.

I believe you can not add more than what is written about the qualification for leadership in the bible. The reason it says "husband of one wife" is IF HE IS MARRIED he should not have more than one wife. It doesn't mean that you have to be married.

True, we all struggle with sin, but the bible says that for leadership, we need to be sure that our spiritual leaders have these qualities. We don't want a pastor that loves money more than anything, or that the flesh controls him more than the spirit. If one day one of our leaders begins to be control by sin, he should be taken out of leadership for a while to receive help from his brothers and sisters. Once he is well, he/she can come back to leadership.

Hope this helps brother! :)

#3 Dan Wetzel

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Posted 26 March 2012 - 01:05 PM

The requirements for ordination and/or consecration in the C&MA are found in the Manual of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, Sections E4 and E5. The Manual is a public document so it is available on this website to anyone who wishes to read the policy.

Certainly there are other issues that must be taken into consideration, but most of the matters mentioned in your post appear to be covered by the very passage of Scripture that you reference.(See I Timothy as well.) The apostle Paul was unmarried. He suggested that for some, the unmarried stste was preferable to marriage. No one must be married to qualify for ordination or consecration. However, we dare not confer the approval of the Church upon any man, by the act of ordination or any women, by consecrating them, if there are issues of significant and/or habitual sin which remain unaddressed. Sexual sin and the abuse of alcohol are specificaslly condemned in God's Word. It is one thing for an individual to live in repentance and faith and to struggle with sinful proclivities. All of us do that to some extent. However, it is quite another for anyone to become settled in sinful patterns of behavior which clearly violate the dictates of Holy Scripture. The fact that some sinful pattterns of behavior are becoming socially aceptable does not give the Church warrant to ignore God's Word. Ordination and/or consecration are public acts of the Church by which the people of God affirm the character, and competence of a candidate as well as their sense of God's call. Christ-like character is an obvious requirement.