John Gill: View on Ordination

John Gill: “…churches, which are religious societies, have a right to choose and ordain their own officers, and which are ordained, αυτοις, ‘for them,’ and for them ‘only;’ that is, for each particular church, and not another (Acts 14:23).”

John Gill believed that “He must be a member of a church, to whom he is to be ordained as a pastor.” He adds further, “His qualifications, such as before observed, must be known by the members of a church, and must be proved and approved of by them; yea, they must be satisfied that he has gifts for ‘their’ edification; for a man may have gifts for the edification of one church, which are not for the edification of another; and this should be known, previous to their choice and call of him.”

A Body of Practical Divinity, Of the Officers of a Church

The ministry, a noble scheme

The following hymn can be found on pages 20-21 in Customs of Primitive Churches by Morgan Edwards. This is the only known printing of it. The hymn is found within the text of “Prop. VIII. Of the election of a minister.” There a suggested hymn is sung in a service for the licensure of a minister. “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story”: a History of Baptist Hymnody in North America, by David Music, is the only other place I have seen it mentioned. It is mentioned there among five texts in Edwards’s church manual “that lack attributions.”[i] Music contrasts its “rough style” with the poetry by Isaac Watts included in the manual. This ministerial hymn may have been written by Edwards specifically for his church manual – or by him or one of his associates for use at such a service recorded in the manual.

1. The ministry! a noble scheme! 

‘Mongst all the means of grace, supreme; 

And best contriv’d to save. 

We sing the author’s worthy praise 

And bless the care he took to raise 

The ministers we have. 

2. He, bounteous still, bids others rise,

In lieu of each that fails, or dies; 

Nor shall the order cease; 

And when he sends by whom he’ll send. 

He makes the means attain the end,

By adding the increase.

3. Let each that hears the preached word,

Admire this goodness of their Lord, 

And in his praise agree; 

For ministers, their work, and call, 

Their shining gifts, their use, and all 

Are fruites of his decree.

The suggested tune for the hymn (8.8.6.8.8.6. meter) is by Thomas A. Arne:

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[i] “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story”: a History of Baptist Hymnody in North America,  David Music, Paul Richardson, 2008, p. 122

The Two Church Offices

The Two Church Offices by W. S. Crawford, Wellington, Texas

The New Testament church is a local, divine organic body. It is composed of disciples of Christ who have been baptized voluntarily to carry on for Christ. Christ is its Founder, its Foundation, its Head and its law Giver. The Holy Spirit is its Superintendent and it is to do what Christ Himself commanded and authourized it to do. It is thus to be perpetuated until Christ comes again. Its permanent officers are pastor and deacons.

The New Testament names the pastor and deacons as offices in the church. In I Tim. 3:1, Paul says “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” According to the New Testament, a bishop was the pastor of a church. I Tim. 3:10 tells us, “And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.” These are the only offices spoken of in the New Testament that are permanent.

Both of these offices are to be filled by men, not by women. Paul instructed Titus, “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly... For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God;” (Titus 1:5—7). A woman cannot be the husband of one wife, therefore cannot be ordained as pastor. Any man who has two living wives is disqualified to be pastor of a church. The deacon is also to be the husband of one wife (I Tim. 3:12). Therefore, the deacon’s office is to be filled by men.

In both of these offices men are to be ordained, and that by the authourity of the church. Paul said that he was ordained a preacher and an apostle (I Tim. 2:7). And Paul told Timothy to “neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery” (I Tim. 4:14). In Acts 6, we see the church selected seven men who were qualified for deacons, and the church placed them before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands upon them thus designating or ordaining them as deacons. We see from these scriptures that pastors and deacons are to be ordained to fill these offices, and are to be ordained by the authourity of the church.

The pastor and deacon are to be servants of the church. Not bosses, nor dictators, but servants. The pastor is to serve in spiritual things. He is to preach the word (Acts 6:4; II Tim. 4:2). He is to feed the church (John 21:15—17; Acts 20:28; I Peter 5:1,2). He is to be the teacher of the church (I Tim. 3:2; II Tim. 2:24). Paul called these things spiritual things (I Cor. 9:11). The deacons are to serve the church in temporal things. They were to see after the financial things of the church (Acts 6:3). The pastor, deacons, and all the membership of the church are instructed to work together, directed by the Holy Spirit to do the will of Christ.

The pastor is to have a divine call and the deacon is to have spiritual qualifications. The pastor is to be divinely called to preach (Acts 20:24; I Cor. 9:16). He is to have a divine call to be pastor (Eph. 4:11). He is to have a divine call to a church (Acts 20:28). The deacons are to be men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3). The pastor is promised a crown of glory that fadeth not away when the Chief Shepherd shall appear (I Peter 5:4). And 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 (I Tim. 3:13).

So then our labour is not in vain in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Neither is the labour and service of any member of the church lost when it is done according to the will of Christ and from a heart of love. Paul said there was a crown of righteousness for him, and not for him only but for all of them that love His appearing (II Tim. 4:8).

From The Baptist Defender, January 28, 1941 (as found in The Baptist Waymark, Vol II, No. 8  May—June 1992)

Women and Elders/Bishops/Pastors

In a discussion about complementarianism – the position that men and women are equal but different and that God has assigned different roles to men and women – and the ordination of women, Bart Barber posted the following well-made comments:

...the larger and underlying problem is the erosion of the biblical office of pastor/elder/overseer that becomes so evident when we consider the practices of many of our churches on topics like this one.
1. When precisely the same roles are entitled “Pastor” in some cases and with other terminology (“Director” or “Minister”) in others, not because of any actual difference in the role, but simply because one occupant is ordained while another is not, we’re missing something.
2. When we write qualifications and job description documents for offices like “Pastor,” for which qualifications and at least some concept of a job description are given in the Bible, and yet in those documents little or no mention is made of the relevant biblical materials (as though we are authorized to redefine what God has defined in scripture), we’re missing something.
3. When we make the key differentiation in theological discussions to be the question of whether one serves in a role (“Senior Pastor”) which, if it appears at all in the New Testament, certainly does not come with its own set of biblical qualifications and responsibilities, we’re missing something.

Bart finished by saying that he was not opposed to having all sorts of other people working at church (a point where we might differ slightly) and concluding: “Have all that you pragmatically require IN ADDITION TO the biblical offices of pastor and deacon, and I’ve got no problem with it. I simply don’t want us to do so at the cost of either (a) weakening the office of pastor/elder/overseer by applying it to a whole host of people who really do not serve in that biblical role, or (b) losing sight of the office of pastor/elder/overseer by failing to set apart specifically as pastors those who serve in that role.”

* Bart is pastor of First Baptist Church, Farmersville, Texas

4 categories of qualifications

A bishop's qualifications, stated negatively and positively:

1. As regards his personal status and habits, 1 Timothy 3:2-3.

2. As regards his relationship to his family, 1 Timothy 3:4-5.

3. As regards his relationship to his church, 1 Timothy 3:5-6.

4. As regards his relationship to the world, 1 Timothy 3:7.