The Church and Ordination

Ordination

Titus 1:5-9

Next Sunday evening we will have a special service for the ordination of Bryce. Tonight, we are going to discuss what we are doing. I hope to give you a good understanding of what the ceremony is about and the Biblical guidelines for setting a man apart for the ministry.

What we are not doing:

Calling a man into the ministry

Conferring some spiritual power or authority upon him

We don’t have the power to do those things. Nothing magical takes place in an ordination service. He will continue to be who he already is after the service.

What is ordination then?

1)It is confirming a man’s call into the ministry

2) Commissioning a man into the service of the Lord through the local church.

1. The church has the right to do this.

Look at verse 5. Titus is told by Paul to appoint elders in the churches that existed in that region.

For what purpose? Order.

“That you might put what remained into order”

The church cannot operate rightly without order. The church needs a leader.

“Elder”= pastor, overseer, bishop. Note verse 7 “overseer”.

I said the church has the right.

An individual doesn’t have the right.

An online ministry doesn’t have the right.

The church has the right.

This is not something done in secret. This is the congregation coming together under the leadership of its elders.

In Acts 6 we see the congregation calling out men and the Apostles approving of these men.

In Acts 13: 2-3 the church ordained Saul and Barnabas for a work.

In Acts 14:21-23 we see elders ordained in the churches.

Even when we go to the Old Testament we see the community involved.

Aaron and his sons were set apart for the priesthood at the direction of God by Moses (Exodus 29). The priests were anointed and consecrated (set apart) for the ministry they did.

Numbers 8:10 says

When you bring the Levites before the Lord, the people of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites,

There is nothing secret about this. It’s public and includes both leaders and congregations. Both the leadership and the congregation recognize a man is set apart for ministry.

We are having a public ceremony to make a declaration to the church and the community that God has called and equipped a man for service.

2. The church does not call men into ministry.

The man is called by God first.

1 Timothy 3:1 “If a man desires the office of a bishop he desires a good thing.”

Desire must come from God. A verse that describes the call from God is 1 Cor. 9:16:

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

If we call men, they won’t last. If God calls men, they can’t quit.

Jeremiah 20:9 says

If I say, “I will not mention him,

or speak any more in his name,”

there is in my heart as it were a burning fire

shut up in my bones,

and I am weary with holding it in,

and I cannot.

A warning to the churches: Don’t call men into the ministry.

A teacher

A pastor

A deacon

God will always call a man first. We don’t say:

I think you’d make a fine preacher!

The last place a person who is not called to the ministry should be is the pulpit. A church can damage itself and others by calling people into ministry.

3. The church recognizes that a man is gifted for pastoral ministry.

This includes a recognition of the call.

Illustration: I went to my pastor and explained all that was going on inside me. He helped to clarify what God was doing. He never approached me first.

Buck Braswell

Bryce as well

When a man who seems to be sincere in his desire for service approaches an elder what is his responsibility?

To see if the man is gifted. A man who is called by God will be gifted by God.

To teach the Bible. 1 Timothy 2:24 says the elder must be able to teach the Bible.

Can he do this effectively? (read a text, understand a text, explain a text)

Can he do this efficiently? (He will have to do it often)

Can he do this spiritually? I realize this is subjective. I believe we can discern if the Spirit of God is moving through a person as he preaches.

Because a call can be false, the church must affirm the man is gifted.

You can want to be a preacher but not be called to be one. The church has a responsibility to tell a man if he is spiritually gifted to fulfill the task. God never calls a man without gifting a man.

More seasoned elders should help the young men to hone their craft. The man is not going to be a great preacher immediately. He is not required to be a great preacher at all. He must be gifted by the Spirit for the ministry. If he is not, he is not called.

We have put Bryce to the test with preaching and teaching. When he is ordained, he will preach more often for a few reasons:

1) He needs to. He has a burning desire. He will get better.

2) You need him to. It’s dangerous for a church to be built on the preaching of one man.

3) I need him to. I can give attention to other areas.

He will preach once a month. Rotating from Sunday mornings to Sunday nights.

4. The church recognizes that a man is qualified for pastoral ministry.

We cannot call a man.

We must examine a man.

Qualified has to do with character. Paul lists the characteristics in verses 6-9.

Even if it appears a man is called and gifted for ministry the church should not ordain him unless his character qualifies him.

Family (assuming he has a wife and children, as most did)

Public testimony (7-8)

Biblically sound (9)

This requires a time of testing.

1 Timothy 5:22

Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.

1 Timothy 3:6

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

When a person is quickly thrown into a position it is often revealed they were not qualified.

This hurts the person.

This hurts the church.

Many men have been ordained to hold positions in the church they were not ready to hold.

This brings up a question: How long is a person ordained for?

A person should be ordained until they are no longer qualified for the position. If a person is not Biblically qualified to hold the position the church ordained them to, the church has the authority and responsibility to remove the ordination.

Nothing will kill a church like unqualified men holding onto positions they are not Biblically qualified for.

A church has the authority to ordain.

A church has the responsibility to remove the ordination if necessary.

Examination does not end when we ordain someone. It continues throughout that person’s ministry.

On Sunday night we are saying Bryce is qualified to hold this position.

5. The church ordains a man for service in the local church.

There was work to do in Crete and that is why Paul instructed Titus to ordain elders.

We don’t ordain people so they can have a title. When we ordain them, we give them a job. Ordination means he has a work.

His job includes:

Instruction in sound doctrine (9)

Rebuking false teaching (9)

Shepherding the flock of God.

Acts 20:28

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Bryce will go to work on Monday.

His title will be changed in the bulletin. It will be Pastor. With the title comes responsibility. He will continue to do what he has been doing. As a pastor he will do even more.

We like to put adjectives on the title of pastor.

Associate

Childrens

Missions

Senior Adult

The Bible never does that. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with the church designating areas of focus for staff. That helps us be more efficient in what we do.

But when a man takes the title pastor there is a responsibility laid upon him. He is your pastor. Just as I am your pastor, he is your pastor as well.

You should look at him that way.

You should pray for him that way.

You should treat him that way.

6. The church sometimes has a service to celebrate the ordination of a man.

This is not required.

Bryce has been examined. The work has been done. We will celebrate the work next Sunday night.

There will be a charge. The message will be primarily for Bryce. He should leave saying “I felt like he was talking straight to me!”

There will be a laying on of hands.

We see this done in:

1 Timothy 4:14

Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.

2 Timothy 1:6

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,

Acts 6:6

These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

When we lay hands on him we are not bestowing a special gift on him.

It’s symbolic- God’s hand is upon you.

It’s personal- We are a part of what God is doing in your life.

After the service we will celebrate together with a meal.

We are celebrating that God is calling and gifting a young man into the ministry. That is a good reason to celebrate. We are celebrating together because God is not only doing something in Bryce’s life. He is doing something in the life of the church as well.