Pastors Matter

If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it and turn it to the book of 1 Timothy. We are continuing our topical series on the church. We've looked at what the Bible says about Scripture, how Scripture should be the standard by which we determine what we do as a church and how we operate. We also looked at the Gospel and talked about how the Gospel provides the substance of what we believe, that everything that we do and are as a church is built on the foundation of what Christ has done for us on the cross and rising from the dead. From there, we've been slowly building different building blocks on Scripture and on the Gospel, thinking about church membership, church discipline. Last week, we looked at congregationalism and how our church operates together as a whole to be able to accomplish Christ's mission.

For the next two weeks, we're going to take time to look at Christian leaders in the church, specifically pastors and deacons: what they are, what they're supposed to do, and what you're supposed to expect and pray for as church members. So, we're going to begin this sermon on pastors by looking at 1 Timothy chapter 3. These are the qualifications of a pastor, elder, overseer. Let me read to us from verses 1 to 7.

This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.” An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not an excessive drinker, not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy. He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as the devil. Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil’s trap.

— 1 Timothy 3:1-7 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, I pray even as we look at these qualifications for what a pastor would be, I ask, Lord, that you would give me strength to be able to submit myself to this word. I pray, Lord, for our church that we would hold all leaders to this kind of standard, and that you would raise up other men who can carry on this kind of mantle and responsibility. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Tom Rainer, former president of Lifeway, tells a story about sitting down with a church who was looking for a pastor. During the conversation, he went up to a whiteboard and he asked them, "How many hours do you think a pastor should spend studying God's Word?" He gave a number, he wrote it on the board. He asked, "How about prayer? How about visitation?" And the list went on and on. By the end of the conversation, Tom totaled the number of hours expected of a pastor, and it totaled to over 100 hours of work.

Now, I'm not saying that to complain. I am well-loved here and well-served by you all. I'm not complaining about my work hours; I'm thankful for the trust that you give me. But I do wonder what you expect of your pastors. What your expectation of him is. Do you expect him to visit your home every week? Do you expect your pastor to be a Frankenstein pastor, slash, custodian, slash, secretary? My toilet count number is currently at five. Do you expect him to be preaching every single Sunday at this pulpit, at this place? What do you expect your pastors to do?

For Paul, in this passage where he talks about the pastoral ministry, his number one priority isn't about what pastors do, but who pastors are. His list of qualifications, his expectation for a pastor, isn't a job description oriented around his productivity or his charismatic personality, but first and foremost, his godliness. Paul tells Timothy, a pastor, what to expect of pastors: that a pastor is to be godly. He's supposed to demonstrate Christ-likeness.

And so I want this sermon oriented around pastors to carry that same level of emphasis. So this sermon is going to be deliberately lopsided. We're going to spend the vast majority of the sermon thinking about who pastors are. And then we'll spend some time talking about what pastors do. And then specifically, since this is talking about how we build our church, I'll talk about the process of how we intend to recognize pastors in our church.

Now, before we dive into these three sections, I just want to say why it's so important for us as Christians to understand these things. First and foremost, because pastors are meant to be a model of what godly Christian living is supposed to look like. I would encourage you that as we go through these qualifications, to take the time to consider how your life compares to that kind of standard. You should expect your pastors to demonstrate Christ-likeness because, over time, your church will grow to reflect more and more the leaders that are put in charge over your church.

I also want you to pay attention to these qualifications because your job as the congregation is to be able to evaluate and recognize pastors. In the New Testament, there normally is a plurality of pastors or elders. In Acts, it talks about the church in Antioch and the church in Ephesus, and it talks about elders, plural. You have multiple pastors that are serving God's people. And Paul in writing this letter to Timothy is telling him what the qualifications of a pastor should be, presumably because there would be more pastors that would get raised up in this church that Timothy is pastoring. And as he pastors, he wants Timothy to understand what to expect and who these people should be. So again, we're going to talk about who pastors are, what pastors do, and then how we will recognize pastors in the church.

Who Pastors Are: Qualifications from 1 Timothy 3

Let's start with recognizing who pastors are. Now, these qualifications themselves in 1 Timothy 3 are not organized. This isn't a neat, logical outline. This isn't a three-point Baptist sermon that Paul is giving in terms of the qualifications to be an elder. And the reason is because this passage in verses 1 to 7 is less trying to give you a list of boxes to check and more trying to paint a picture. Think of it like every description of an elder or a pastor is like turning the facets of a diamond, another angle at what a pastor should be, so that as you put all these pictures together, you kind of composite a 3D image of what a pastor should be. So that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm just going to walk down these qualifications side by side.

Let's start with qualification number one: desire. Look at verse 1: "This saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work." This is a statement, if anyone desires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work. This office of overseer, that word is the exact same word that's used for bishop. In the Bible, the titles of overseer, bishop, minister, teacher, pastor, elder, they're all overlapping ideas. They're all referring to the same office. They have the same responsibility. It's men in the church that are tasked with the responsibility of teaching, of overseeing, of discipling.

And the first qualification to be a pastor in a church is assumed that you want to be a pastor. You notice that Paul uses the word here "aspire"? He doesn't say "anyone's called to be a pastor." He says "if anyone aspires to be a pastor." In other words, if you want to be a pastor, you have to want to be a pastor. In fact, in 1 Peter 5, Peter goes as far as to say that a pastor must not shepherd out of compulsion, but willingly as God would have you (1 Peter 5:2).

Sometimes pastors will talk about testimony and they'll frame it as though they were like Jonah escaping Nineveh. Like they tried everything they could to not be a pastor, and the Lord constrained them and they were forced to be here in front of you all and serve you all. I think most pastors when they share that kind of story, it's probably true to their life experience. I think that there are a lot of ways that God can weave all sorts of circumstances in our life to bring us to a position of service. And oftentimes they'll even present that as a way of posturing humility, like this isn't something that I was eager to do; I'm not eager to power grab or have a position of authority over you. I want to affirm those instincts while simultaneously saying, you have to have a pastor who wants to serve you. You have to have a pastor who's happy to be a pastor.

Because 1 Peter 5 describes a man who serves out of compulsion as someone who would lord that over their congregation. It's a way, if someone feels forced to be a pastor because the congregation forced them to, it's a leveraging chip. It's a way of lording it over the congregation and saying, "I didn't want to do this, you made me, therefore you owe me." And that's not the disposition of a man of God. It's not the disposition of someone who should be teaching the Word. A pastor should love being a pastor, should want to serve his people. If a man is checked out of the ministry, he should check out of the ministry. You should only be in it if you want it, because the nature of pastoral leadership is noble work.

You notice the way that those two words hang side by side? They're noble work. It is a privilege, and it is service. You need to be willing to do it willingly. Leadership isn't about suffering; it's about doing something honorable, and it's worth wanting. Which means if there are any men in this church who want to be a pastor and you feel guilty about that kind of feeling, I just want to affirm that desire. That's a great desire to have. We want God to raise up dozens of men to be pastors at this church. We want so many pastors that we have too many pastors. I don't think we could ever have too many pastors. But I want enough pastors that we are in such excess and surplus that we could just freely give them away to other churches and help them serve other people and other bodies of Christ. It is a good desire.

In fact, this is the way that David describes authority that's done well in 2 Samuel chapter 23:

The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, “The one who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God, is like the morning light when the sun rises on a cloudless morning, the glisten of rain on sprouting grass.”

— 2 Samuel 23:3-4 (CSB)

I don't know how many of you woke up early enough to see the sunrise, or feel the crisp morning breeze, or see the dew on the leaves in the morning. That kind of refreshment is what a good leader feels like. I hope you want your leaders to be like that. I hope you, if you desire to be a leader, desire to be like that. And it's precisely because it's a noble work that this noble work requires noble workers.

Which brings us to qualification two: He must be above reproach. Look again at that first part of verse 2: "An overseer therefore must be above reproach." This is the first qualification that Paul explicitly states. It's the summary qualification of all the other qualifications: that a man must be above reproach or above accusation. He is not chargeable. In other words, a pastor must be a stand-up guy. Not that he can't ever be accused of wrongdoing, but the man should live his life in such a way that behavior out of step with this picture of godliness that you see here in 1 Timothy 3 doesn't line up. In other words, in a lot of ways this qualification of being above reproach is deliberately vague. I mean, how do you quantify being above reproach? "I was godly five times this week." Is that being above reproach? Can you really capture this picture of this godly man with anything that you can quantify? "He visited me three times. He read his Bible two times." You can't do that. The reason why he gives this general qualification is because he's trying to get you to assess your gut. I call it a vibe-check qualification. The idea is, do you trust him?

When you hear this qualification of being above reproach, does that resonate with the way that you think about this man? David Mathis in Desiring God asks two questions to help us discern what we mean by being above reproach: First, "Is he regularly the subject of charges, whether justly so or not, due to his own lack of discretion?" It's one thing to speak the truth and stand your ground; it's another to use the truth to satisfy your own lust to be controversial. I love Martin Luther; so grateful for his work. He would never be a pastor here. Number two, "Will having him as a pastor-elder prove a regular distraction to the church? If he's frequently called into question, not strictly because of the truth, but due to his way of presenting it or living it, perhaps he needs more time to live faithfully and build a new reputation before encumbering the church with his lapses. A man may be technically righteous and yet of such a reputation that it would be counterproductive to have him in church office." I think those are two great questions to ask when you think about a man: Is he above reproach?

Qualification three: The husband of one wife. Notice that Paul says that there in verse 2, "the husband of one wife." The pastor needs to be a one-woman man. I recognize the irony of saying that as an unmarried man. But it doesn't mean that an unmarried man is not qualified. Otherwise, we'd be kicking Jesus and Paul out of the office of pastor, as well as many other godly men before us, like Richard Sibbes or John Stott. As one scholar put it here, Paul's primary concern is not the quantity of people in one's marriage, but the quality. Is the man a one-woman man? Is he faithful to his wife? Is he the kind of person that you would be uncomfortable with in a one-on-one situation? Is he the person that you would warn other women about? The man's married life must reflect the character fitting of a Christian.

Number four: Self-controlled, sensible, and respectable. You see that in verse 2. Is the man in control of himself? Or is he controlled by what's around him? Similar to being above reproach, these three qualifications are deliberately vague. It's a vibe-check: Do you trust this guy? Is he able to be in control of himself? Or are you scared about what he's going to do? Do you find yourself having to constantly reel him back? Is he sensible? Do you trust if you sit down and talk with your pastor that he's capable of having a reasonable conversation with you? Where he's able to make sense? Or do you have to repeatedly remind him of the basics? Is he respectable? Or do you find yourself constantly having to follow after him to clean up his messes, having to explain for the sake of other people, "Hey, I know that was weird, he means well"? The kind of respect and trust isn't something that the pastor demands from his church. It's something that he earns through his character. It describes who he is. In other words, this guy has to be the kind of dude that you don't baby, right? He's the one who's supposed to help lead the family of God. He's not someone that you need to constantly tend after like a child.

Qualification five: He must be hospitable. Pastors are welcoming people. Pastors are to lead the family of God. They themselves must lead a welcoming home. Hospitality must mark their Christian life. It's no wonder that in the early church in Acts 2, one of the descriptions that you see of the very first church is that they met in each other's homes (Acts 2:46). Because what's the sign of being able to step in someone else's house? It means you're family, right? A pastor should treat you as though you are family because you are family. And that hospitality, that disposition, overflows from their house to every other facet of life. Does he lead in a way that when you talk to him, you feel like you're at home? Is he warm?

Qualification six: He must be able to teach. Now, out of all the qualifications for being a pastor, this is the only qualification that's a "do" with his public-facing job as opposed to who he is as a person. Pastors must be able to teach. Have you ever heard someone teach or preach a sermon where they say a bunch of words and you walk away from that sermon thinking to yourself, "I have no idea what they were talking about. I understood the sentences, I just didn't understand any ideas"? Now, pastors or people who study God's Word may know a lot. They might even have a seminary degree or a doctorate, but it's one thing to get the truth right. It's a whole other thing to be able to get the truth across. Pastors must be able to clearly articulate God's truth in a way that people can actually understand. To be able to teach the Word of God and apply it faithfully in people's lives.

That means even if a pastor is super smart or super wise, if he stands up behind the pulpit and says a bunch of fancy words, flexing on how much he knows, and you walk away thinking, "I don't understand a word of what he says," he probably shouldn't be a pastor. I have a general disposition of teaching where I think about Kevin from The Office: "Why use big word if small word do trick?" Not because the ideas in the Bible aren't complex, but because the main things in the Bible are exceptionally clear. God's gracious. Christ saves. Sin bad. You've got to be able to communicate in a way that people can understand; be able to teach the Word of God and apply it faithfully in people's lives.

Now, this doesn't mean that you have to be an exceptional public speaker. I understand that my job being on staff at this church as a primary Bible teacher requires me to stand behind this pulpit and teach a lot. I would hope that whoever that guy is is relatively comfortable being able to do public teaching exactly like this. But let's say the Lord gave us five pastors. That doesn't mean that all of them are going to be doing this kind of public teaching all the time. It doesn't mean that you have to be the greatest public speaker or that you can be able to stand up in front of thousands and teach the Bible. What it does mean is that you have the ability to open up this book and teach it properly. That you can rightly discern what's true and communicate it to those around you. If you have a man where someone is able to say, "Man, whenever I walk away from a conversation with that person, I walk away encouraged. Man, when I poke that person, he just bleeds Bible. He reads his Word. He's constantly pointing me to Jesus. My soul is filled up. I trust him with my questions and my soul." If you have a man like that, that's a guy that you want to have as a pastor.

Qualification seven: Not an excessive drinker. Look at verse 3. That's pretty clear, right? A pastor is supposed to be sober-minded. He's not supposed to be inebriated with alcohol. Now, this isn't the same thing as banning all alcohol altogether. In the same book, in chapter 5, verse 23, Paul tells Timothy:

Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

— 1 Timothy 5:23 (CSB)

I don't think the moment that Timothy hears those words and sips wine, he's not disqualifying himself to be a pastor. What he can't be is an excessive drinker. And think about what that means. It's a man who can't control himself. It's a man who is dependent on substances that end up impairing his judgment. Ephesians 5 says:

And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit:

— Ephesians 5:18 (CSB)

A pastor is to lead God's people, which means he needs to be sober-minded. I think sometimes people focus so much on the quality, I think they forget about the dynamic. A lot of people that struggle with alcoholism are generally pleasant people when they're sober, and then they totally flip a switch when they become drunk. And often, spouses and others that are under that kind of terrible abuse will make excuses for them when they're inebriated in light of their inebriation, right? I think as a general principle, that's a terrible way to be able to evaluate a Christian. Don't just judge them based on their best moments. Recognize who they are in their worst moments. That applies whether you're talking about alcohol, any other substances, or even just generally in life. Don't let someone's stress, being sleep-deprived, substance abuse, don't let any of that be an excuse for ungodliness or abuse.

Qualification eight: Not a bully, but gentle, and not quarrelsome. You see that there in verse 3. Not a bully, but gentle, not quarrelsome. The word for bully here literally means "to be a striker." Someone who hits. I just want to be absolutely clear: an abuser has no business being in any kind of authority, in any place, at any time. I don't care if you are a pastor, a husband, a father; anyone who uses their power to deliberately control and hurt another person for the sake of breaking them down has no place in any position of authority in the eyes of God, especially in the house of God. And if you are currently experiencing any kind of abusive authority, especially physical, please talk to me or please have a conversation with someone that you trust.

But Paul's rejection of a striker is broader than just someone who physically hits. It's about those who are aggressors, those who are marked with a confrontational, aggressive spirit, a quarrelsome people. People who say that they are so over the drama, while themselves being a drama magnet. Those who portray themselves as the hero in stories while villainizing their opponents. Those who are relentless with their forcefulness, who picks fights. Those who view the best defense as a strong offense. Those kinds of aggressive tendencies only tend to get more accentuated as someone gains more authority. Because someone who must have his way, who uses his power to force his way, will only have more power in his position, right?

This is part of the reason why one of the challenges of being a husband, for example, is neglect. Because oftentimes when you're in the position of authority, you don't notice how your authority is being thrown around. In the same way as those who have to submit to your authority. If you're kids, you understand exactly what I mean to be under your parent's authority. The same thing is true with being a pastor. There are all sorts of decisions that I make as a pastor as being in authority, and if I am not sensitive or thoughtful or aware of the way that my authority affects people, I will not be an effective pastor. I'll steamroll people without even meaning to. The tools that we receive as being in a position of authority, it's supposed to be used to protect and provide for the sheep. When someone is a striker, those same tools get used to wound the sheep. Heavy-handedness turns scalpels into swords. And godly authority isn't characterized by breaking down. It's characterized by building up. It's not about ruling from above. It's about setting a steady foundation that other people can build on. It's not top down, it's bottom up. It is gentle.

Do you notice that that's a qualification for being a pastor? That he is gentle? Do you think about masculinity like that? Or leadership like that, being a gentle leader? In fact, this is the way that Paul describes ministry to the church in Thessalonica. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 7, he says:

Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle among you, as a nurse nurtures her own children.

— 1 Thessalonians 2:7 (CSB)

Think about that. You think about godly manhood like He-Man. He's saying, "I was a man like among you, I was being a godly leader by being like a nursing mom." Think about that picture, a mother nursing her baby. That is not tough love. That is a gentle touch. The pastor is supposed to lead like that. Can you share with your pastor and know that you won't immediately get steamrolled? That you won't get condescended to, but that you'll be cared for? It doesn't mean that pastors don't have hard words to say. That's one of the hardest parts of my job. But that they're marked with a gentle care for fragile, precious souls.

Qualification nine: Not greedy. Oz Guinness once quoted that if a man is drunk on wine, you'll throw him out of the church. But if he's drunk on money, you'll make him a deacon. Now, a pastor cannot be beholden to money. That is not the same thing as saying that you should keep the pastor poor to keep him humble, right? I'm very grateful that you guys don't have that disposition with me. I drive a used car. I get paid. My bills are fine. You don't need to pay me more money. That being said, 1 Timothy 5, verse 17 through 18 says that:

The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and, “The worker is worthy of his wages.”

— 1 Timothy 5:17-18 (CSB)

That term "double honor" is a financial term. Especially for those who labor in teaching and preaching, God's Word should be cared for by the church. That it's advantageous to the church for me to be able to spend the hours that I would spend at a nine to five, so I can provide for my family, instead being spent devoted to God's Word, to prayers, being able to build up the saints. I'm super grateful that this church has been generous with me and has cared for me well. I'm very grateful for that. And at the same time, I must warn you against pastors who love money, who obsess over their bank balance, who are constantly pumping up the budget or their salary. A pastor needs to first and foremost be in love with Jesus, not the world. You want to appoint pastors where you don't feel the gut feeling to question their spending habits because you trust them. If you don't, then you don't just have a salary problem; you have a person problem.

Pastors should not pursue a lavish life or even a comfortable life, but one that shows that they steward their money and leverage it to bring God the most glory. That is part of the reason why we maintain a budget as a church. In our members' meetings, you guys get to see a finance report where you see every cent that our church spends. We agree together as a church every year on how we're going to steward and spend our money. And the reason why we do that, the reason why we're transparent about our finances, is so that we can both hold the church accountable and we can also ensure that pastors are taken care of as we're trying to be wise stewards of what the Lord has given. Satan sows division and secrecy. And money is not evil, but the love of money can absolutely be the root of all evil. So we want to tame it and leverage it to bring God glory. You should look at the way that your pastor spends his money as a good model of how you can be a thoughtful steward with how you spend your money.

Qualification ten: He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. Look at verse 5: "If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God's church?" If you want to know how a pastor would lead, look at his house. This verse isn't focusing on whether or not he is married or whether or not all the children in his house are believers or whether or not he's a perfect father, but whether or not he's a competent, faithful husband and father. Whether or not the way he leads his family shows his leadership. Because if the kids are consistently not listening to their parents, if they're cute, but they're obstinate little Tasmanian devils flying off the wall, that's a pretty good sign of what it would look like to be under a church under that man. That the home becomes a microcosm, an example, a physical diorama of what his leadership is like. A chaotic home will lead to a chaotic church.

I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine several months ago talking about how he was convicted by the Lord that he needed to be more present in his house. He had some kids that had some severe behavior issues. And he didn't understand what was going on at the root of it. And the Lord humbled him, he ended up in a situation where he had to be home more, and lo and behold, the kid is behaving better. Because dad's around. Because he's actually invested in the lives of his kids. If a man leads his family well, if he's able to disciple and discipline his kids faithfully, if he's able to lead his wife, help his kids understand the right boundaries for their good and help them grow in righteousness. That kind of patient, clear leadership is exactly what the church would need. That doesn't disqualify a single guy like myself from being able to serve in a church. It is a disadvantage when you evaluate a single man to be a pastor of a church, because you just don't have that example. Come to my house, if it's a mess, it's because I made it a mess, right? If it's clean, well, that's really great, but I only have to clean for myself. And it's possible that you may be in scenarios where you have two guys of similar godliness, but you just have more evidence for the guy who's a dad as opposed to the guy who's single. That's not inherently wrong. At the same time, you can also have single men that demonstrate godliness in a way that you could affirm them to be a pastor. Anyway, that's just a side.

Qualification eleven: He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation of the devil. This is not the same thing as a guy being young. 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 12, Paul tells Timothy:

Don’t let anyone despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

— 1 Timothy 4:12 (CSB)

The verse here is giving the picture that he must not be newly planted. Because a sprout can get stomped on by Satan. Or worse, he will grow so tall with shallow roots that he will topple over his own weight because of his high view of himself, just like Satan got cast out of heaven because of his own pride. We can set up a new believer for failure by promoting him too quickly. And this happens in churches all the time. You see a guy convert, he's zealous, he's on fire for the Lord, he has a charismatic personality. Suddenly you want to promote him to positions of leadership or having teaching lessons and what you end up with is a guy who ends up with such a big head that you can't ever tell him no. That's not a good idea. As a church, it's wise, generally speaking, to be able to slow down. To hold someone back, not for zeal's sake. It's not that ambition or enthusiasm is bad, but that you take that energy that a guy has, and instead of channeling it upward, up the church authority ladder, you channel it downwards. You help the guy grow deep roots, a Christian maturity. And that kind of maturity needs time to grow. And that qualification in verse 11 is also relative. Paul's writing to a church that's only been in existence for maybe 20 years, right? And yet he's telling them, "find mature Christians who aren't new converts." A new convert is going to look relative depending on whether you're at a frontier missions environment or if you're at a church who's existed since 1948.

Qualification twelve: He must have a good reputation among outsiders so that he does not fall into the devil's trap. This is the last qualification Paul gives, and for good reason. He begins by talking about the need to be above reproach. He talks about all these qualifications that you can discern yourself as you get to know a guy. And now he expands the importance of a pastor's evident righteousness beyond the walls of his church and into the community. In other words, a pastor's reputation matters. His life throughout the week needs to line up with his profession. So much of Christian testimony in recent years has been negatively impacted by Christian leaders not behaving like Christians, let alone pastors. Would many public Christian celebrities and leaders be able to meet these pastoral qualifications?

Let me just exhort you as a pastor, one of the challenges of online media consumption is that you don't know their lives. You don't know what's going on. It doesn't mean that the content can't be helpful or good. But there are ways that you grow from observation and learning that is different than just listening to someone because they're controversial or because they're fun to listen to. I remember a friend of mine having to fire his associate pastor because someone in the neighborhood told him details about his life that he had no idea about. Because in casual conversation he mentioned that that guy was on staff at his church. And this non-Christian man looked at him and said, "I cannot believe that he's a pastor at your church." The reputation matters because it's attached to the name of Christ. That's who they are to be. They're supposed to be like Jesus. Think about what Paul tells Timothy, "Follow me as I follow Christ." You want qualified leaders because those leaders then affect the next generation after them, and the next generation after them, and all those under their care. Want desire, pray that your pastors will look like Jesus.

What Pastors Do: Life and Teaching

So what do pastors do? Well, if you turn one page over to 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 16, you'll see what Paul tells Timothy to do as a pastor. He tells him:

Pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.

— 1 Timothy 4:16 (CSB)

"Life and teaching." If I were to summarize what pastors do, I would say that they do four things. Okay? First, pastors model godly Christianity. You're able to see that already with the examples of the qualifications of being a pastor. So to model godly Christianity. One other gut check that I have is whether or not if I had a son someday, if I could point at any of the pastors and say, "Hey, if I die, be like them." If I'm not willing to say that, that guy should not be a pastor, right? We want our people to be godly men.

Number two, they preach. There's doctrine right there. They preach the Word. They have the responsibility of the teaching of God's Word in the church. Don't hire a guy just 'cause he's nice. Make sure they're actually able to help you understand the Bible.

Number three, they pray. It's really interesting in Acts chapter 6, when you have the situation of Jew and Greek widows, and the Greeks aren't being fed and they're upset. And the apostles gathered the whole community. They say:

“It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables.

— Acts 6:2 (CSB)

And then in Acts 6:4, they say: "We must dedicate ourselves to the teaching of the word and to prayer." Imagine that, right? Now, I'm not saying that I'm not going to help you move because I need to pray through the membership directory. This isn't like an eject button for me whenever I do stuff. But I hope you realize that one of the main jobs I have as a pastor is being able to pray for you. It's a privilege of a life to be able to go before God the souls of the people and people asking to care for them. It's also an acknowledgement that I'm not in charge of this church, right? Prayer is an active work of faith acknowledging that ultimately we're all under our Chief Shepherd. And you could pray that I would pray consistently in being able to entrust the life of this church and the future of this church to him.

Number four, they disciple. Paul tells Timothy:

What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

— 2 Timothy 2:2 (CSB)

In other words, my job is to disciple other people. And that also means that I'm simultaneously overseeing the entirety of the church. That also means that I'm not able to give every single person equal attention, right? If you think about it just practically, I have to triage my priorities. And you could pray that I'd be wise in my way of doing that. My general disposition and my priorities is that I focus on what's beginning, what's broken, what's biblical, right? In terms of my priorities. And in particular in discipleship, that I would raise up other men who can also be pastors, right? If we look back at our church 10 years from now, if we go into the future 10 years from now and I'm still the only pastor here at this church, I failed, right? Now circumstantially, there could be all sorts of other stuff that caused that failure. But assuming all things are equal, if I'm still the only pastor here in 10 years, I have probably failed you as a pastor. Not because we need to hire someone, but because I would love for our church to be a church that raises people up. Who's able to send them out, that we are able to have tons of other pastors. In such a way, not that you go, "Hey, you know, I know John's too busy for me," but actually you're like, "I don't really need John. I have other people that know me, that care for me, they're constantly invested in my life." I want that spider web to be so built out and strong together, that we're able to say, "Man, honestly, if John dropped dead tomorrow, our church would be fine." Now, I'd still rather be alive, but it would be good for our church to have a dependence not on me, but on the work of the Word.

The Congregation's Role: Recognizing and Supporting Pastors

So then, what do we do? You know who pastors are, you know what they're supposed to do. Here's what you're supposed to do. Your job as a congregation is to recognize pastors. Here's how that process works as a church. One of the things that you'll start to hear me say regularly, especially after we implement, Lord willing, the new bylaws, is that I will tell you that if you think anyone is qualified to be a pastor, based on the qualifications that you see here in 1 Timothy, I'm not saying that you need to hire them on staff. I know that's a bit of unfamiliar concept here. But in the Bible, you do see examples of people that are supported and not supported. Paul deliberately forsakes receiving pay so that he can be an example to the church. There are examples like that in the congregation. And you have those that are on staff.

In our church, I want us to have tons of people that are on staff and not on staff serving as pastors. And what I would do is I would stand up before the church, I would say, "Hey, if there's anyone at our church that you think is qualified to serve as a pastor, please tell me." And what will happen is over time, me and other pastors serving at the church, you start to hear the same name over and over again. And eventually, it'll get through my thick skull. I'll think, "Huh, maybe he should be a pastor." And then I'll sit down with them. Maybe they'll sit down in the pastor meeting. We'll be able to ask them. If they have a family, you can ask their family questions about their life. Maybe there are things that come up in that conversation that makes sense to not pursue a pastorate with that person, right? Maybe there are sin issues, maybe there are life stages. I know tons of guys that have served in past as non-staff pastors that will step down because of the stage of the kid's life or the stage of their own life. All sorts of great reasons to not serve as a pastor.

But let's assume the guy does want to be a pastor, and he is qualified, and the pastors think it's a good idea. Then what would happen is at a members' meeting, the pastors would present that man as a nominee to be a pastor at this church. Now, when I say that that person is nominated, what I mean is that they're not a pastor yet. You will have time between that meeting and the next meeting in two months. People will vet that man, ask him whatever questions, as well as bringing up any concerns. And I would ask you, if you have any concerns about a man, to please talk to me. There's no need to put someone through a humiliation ritual of airing all their dirty laundry in public, if you could just do away with it in private. And also because there are oftentimes that people may have concerns about a human being for them not being a pastor. There are a couple of reasons why I would like you to talk to me if you have hesitations about a man. The first is because you could just convince me, right? There could be information I don't know about where I'm immediately swayed. Second, you could convince him that he shouldn't be a pastor.

I know of one church that I was a part of where they wanted to nominate a young man, they actually put him in front of the church, and in the church of about 900, there were about a dozen people that had concerns about him, right? Now, if you think about in terms of ratios, that's very small, right? But they knew this guy for many years, they're like, "Man, I—he just seems a little bit too green. He's exhibited arrogance in some interactions that we've had in the past. I'm not saying that he's not pursuing godliness, but I just don't know if he's fully baked in the oven yet." And what the elders did was they heard it. They decided themselves, "Hey, I think we're still okay with this guy." But they went to that brother. They said, "Hey, we just want you to know, hey, like, some folks have concerns. This is the specific concern that they brought up. Would you still be comfortable pursuing this? But we want you to be in the loop." And that young man withdrew his nomination. He said, "Man, if there's even a small chance of that being true, I want to be able to pump the brakes and take extra time to examine my own soul." I think by doing that, he thoroughly disproved any of the concerns that those guys had. At the same time, he was able to take the next year to be able to focus on his soul and demonstrate humility and evidence it to the church. And in a year, he was voted in to be a pastor of the church. I think that's a wonderful example.

So you can convince the pastors, you could convince the nominee. The third thing is, I could convince you, right? There are certain times where people have concerns or things that they want to make sure that the leadership has thought about. And I think that's great. Feel free to do that. It's also possible over the course of conversation that you may be persuaded. Now, that being said, you may still bring up concerns and not be convinced. In that case, here's what I want you to do as a pastor: I want you to vote no on that pastor. Because we shouldn't require unanimity for most of the decisions that we make as a church. And the reason isn't because unanimity isn't great, but because we want honest disagreement and conversation. And we don't want you to be able to sear your conscience by feeling forced to do something that you may not want to do, right? Now, why should you vote no on a pastor if you think he shouldn't be a pastor? If you look at the qualifications, if you look at your own rationale, if you think sincerely, he shouldn't serve as a pastor, feel free to vote no. But in most cases, you're going to look at a guy and if he genuinely fits these aspects here that you see written, you're going to want to see him serve. It's such a gift. We don't raise up pastors. God raises up pastors, right? We just recognize the ones that the Lord has called to serve his sheep.

So that's the main responsibility that you have as a congregation: Being able to recognize pastors, set them apart for that kind of work.

Number two: Encourage your pastors. And those members who meet those qualifications. Pray for your pastors. Every time I go through 1 Timothy 3, it is genuinely like a humiliation ritual. It's just a—I can think of a highlight reel of all sorts of failures I've had as a pastor. It breaks my heart. I also trust that the Lord's at work in all sorts of good ways. I'm grateful that often times people hear a better sermon than I prepare, or that people are more touched or helped than I thought that I was capable. But please pray for your men that serve you in the church. As we feel the weight of these qualifications, pray that God would raise up more pastors in this church. As we take in four pastoral interns in September, I hope you look at all four of those men that if God fulfills their good desire to serve in ministry, that you are deploying soldiers into a place that none of us will be able to go to, which is the future. We need God to raise up more men that see the call, that are inspired to be able to take up the helm and shepherd God's sheep.

Number three: You need to expel pastors who do not meet these qualifications. It doesn't matter if it's me or anyone else that you dearly love. If I commit adultery, kick me out. If I become harsh or unloving or unqualified in any of the ways that you see in 1 Timothy 3, you have a responsibility to remove me as a pastor.

Number four: Seek to embody these qualifications yourself. If you look at these qualifications, outside of being able to teach, all of them are commanded elsewhere in the New Testament of you. I would encourage you the way that you strengthen this congregation isn't only by demanding this kind of qualification of your leaders, but expecting that kind of qualification of yourself. By pursuing righteousness. By creating a culture of discipling, where growing in Jesus is so normal that for someone to stagnate in their faith in this church or deliberately neglect their walk in Jesus, feels abnormal.

Number five: Exalt Christ. You realize that primarily 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 7 is a picture of what Jesus is like. Who he is, what he does. The reason why we want to pursue godliness isn't so that we become good enough that God likes us. But because we worship a Savior who already has embodied all of these qualifications for all eternity. You realize that the reason why God loves you isn't because he died for you. It's because he loves you that Jesus died for you. That's the reason. It's out of his love, out of his characteristics, out of his godliness, that God pours out his grace on despicable sinners like us. That even though we deserve to suffer in hell forever, God demonstrates his own love for us:

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

— Romans 5:8 (CSB)

That while we were his enemies, Christ died for us. If you're not here and you're not a Christian, you can have that kind of Savior in your life who knows every nook and cranny of your soul. Who knows the dark crevices that you don't want anyone else to hear about, and he died and suffered on the cross on behalf of your sin. He paid the penalty that you deserved in full, and he rose from the dead victorious over sin and death. And he looks after you. He chases after you. And he says, "I can be your good shepherd." John 6:37 says:

Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

— John 6:37 (CSB)

The good news of the Gospel is that not only that you can be forgiven from your sins, but that you can be loved and cared for by a good shepherd. He says in John 10:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

— John 10:11 (CSB)

What a Savior! Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be able to hold pastors to this standard. Pray, Lord, that you would raise up more pastors. And we do thank you, Lord, that you are our Chief Shepherd, our Chief Pastor. We ask, Lord, that you would continue to care and look after us as we seek to follow and be faithful to you. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.