Tag: Pastor

The Qualifications of a Bishop (Pastor)

1 Timothy 3 King James Version (KJV)

“3 This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;

5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

7 Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

8 Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;

9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

10 And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.

11 Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.

12 Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

13 For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:

15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” (Bible Gateway King James Version 2020)

The Church I attend is looking for a Pastor and I am honored to have been selected to the Pastoral Committee and it has been challenging to find the Pastor the Lord wants us to have, especially with the World shutting down due to COVID-19.  Finding a man that fits all these criteria is challenging to say the least, but we are using the Bible as our guide.  There are 19 criteria that the man has to meet to be qualified to serve as the Bishop of a Church, so it’s definitely difficult to find a qualified man to be the Pastor of a Church.    

Pray for our Church, that God’s will, will be done, that we would find the Pastor he wants us to have, thank you, God Bless you! 

Faith and Patience

Our Church is currently searching for a Pastor, and in our Wednesday night message, someone commented that our Church’s faith and patience may be being tested now since we have been searching for five months, for such a long time.  And my argument is maybe five months is not a long time to God.  Maybe God is trying to teach us something, maybe he is trying to teach us patience and faith.  Maybe, if we found a preacher in the near future and it took six and half months or seven months or even less than a year, maybe that is a blessing because it didn’t take years.  I think it depends if you look at the glass half empty or half full. 

Our Church has always had a Preacher either filling in or in view-of-a-call so there has been a preacher preaching every Sunday and I firmly believe that God has used or Church for inexperienced Preachers to gain experience.  We’ve truly been blessed with the different sermons from the different Preachers filling in.  And meeting with the Pulpit Committee is a blessing in itself too.  We have developed a camaraderie that we will miss when we do fill the position, we joked that we may continue to meet even after we find a Pastor. 

God puts us through trials and tribulations and tests our faith to teach us, for us to grow as Christians.  “God’s ultimate purpose for us is to grow more and more into the image of His Son” (Got Questions.Org 2002-2020)

“This is the goal of the Christian, and everything in life, including the trials and tribulations, is designed to enable us to reach that goal. It is part of the process of sanctification.” (Got Questions.Org 2002-2020)

Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknew he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Holman KJV Study Bible 2015)    

“Trials develop godly character, and that enables us to rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, character and hope.” (Got Questions.Org 2002-2020)

Through all of God’s trials and tribulations, we overcome adversity and it makes us stronger in our walk with Christ. 

I watched the movie Overcomer a few days ago and I highly recommend it to you.

“And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations.” (Holman KJV Study Bible 2015) 

Are you an Overcomer? 

Handing Out Donuts

Our old preacher started a ritual where he and some of the Church congregation would hand out donut holes to people at a local gas station.  It was a good ice breaker, a way to invite people to our Church, it was also a way to talk to people that may not know Jesus Christ, and it was a way to let people know we care about them.

Our Church has been without a preacher since the end of August.  We’ve formed a pastoral committee and have been searching for the preacher the Lord has picked out for us.  We’ve been praying for God’s will.  It has been a very fulfilling endeavor; we understand we are at God’s mercy and he will provide when the time is right.

As servants of God, we are supposed to go out and tell Jesus Christ’s story of good news.

Today’s Sunday school lesson was about “The Banquet”.  Have you ever invited people over for a gathering and they cancelled on you or just didn’t show up?  It’s disappointing to prepare a big feast or schedule a party and no one show up.  That’s what happened at the Great Supper a meal was prepared, and the guests all had excuses to why they couldn’t attend. 

One person said, “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it:  I pray thee have me excused.” (Holman KJV Study Bible) 

Another excuse was “I have bought five yolk of oxen, and I must go to prove them:  I pray thee have me excused.” (Holman KJV Study Bible)

Another stated” I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come.” (Holman KJV Study Bible)

Luke 14:21 “So that servant came and shewed his lord these things.  Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, go out quickly and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt and the blind.” 

Luke 14:22 “And the servant said, Lord it is done as thou has commanded, and yet there is room.”

Luke 14:23 “And the lord said unto the servant, go out into the highway and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house be filled.”

Since the people invited had other things to do with their time, they went into the streets and invited the common people into their house to fill it up.  As Christians, we should also not discriminate.  We should want to tell our story to anyone and everyone that will listen after all there is not better deed than to lead someone to Christ. 

Can you imagine being invited to sit with Jesus and eat at his table?  How could anyone refuse such an offer?  How many times will Jesus ask us to do work for him?  And how many times can we refuse to do what God asks us to do?  How many times are we going to make excuses to not accept Jesus into our hearts?  We may say next time, or next week, but the reality is there may not be a next time or a next Sunday.  If God asks you to hand out donuts, then hand out donuts.    

Pulpit Committee Part 1

Our Church is tasked with the unfortunate task of finding a new Pastor. We have known for a few weeks that our Pastor would be leaving and in our Sunday school class, I expressed interest in the process of finding a new one. God laid it on my heart to be on the committee, but I didn’t tell anyone of this desire. To my disbelief, I was nominated to the committee, I couldn’t believe it, when our Sunday school teacher asked if I was interested in being on the committee. It was like he read my mind. God definitely works in mysterious ways, because I didn’t even tell my wife of my desire to be involved with the process and my wish came true.

We had our first meeting on Tuesday, really just explaining the process, what our roles will be, and what to expect, but when we were done with our meeting, we got our first application. I’m not sure why God wants me to be involved with this search, but our Church has prayed a lot about it, and so have I. The Committe is certainly going to do our best to find the best Pastor that fits our congregation’s needs. I’ll let you know how it turns out.