Biblical Character Qualifications for Church Leaders

Effective Leadership. One often overlooked important quality for any priest is that he "must have a good reputation with those outside the church." (I Timothy 3: 7). This past week I heard testimony indicating the berries have this qualification. Leadership Characteristics.

Great Leadership. Sunday School classes PreacherIn our man, our pastor neighbors share the reason he recently started attending our church. He said that he had to wait two years before coming to the church because he wanted to "see whether this person is really who he claims to be." After observing and interacting with my pastor during that time, including the dispute over the spirit of the fence, he saw something authentic and memorable (no doubt it is the image of Christ, unobscured by human pride). My pastor passed the test of reputation, and she won the opportunity to effectively share the Gospel as a result. God used the qualifying She needs. Effective Leader.

What Makes A Good Leader. For several years, I was part of a family that is very dense charismatic Reformed church. There, I found a typical strong emphasis on biblical qualifications for church leaders. I saw this exact qualifications stated and defined, and I watched my pastor is responsible not only to achieve a qualification at the beginning, but to retain them all the way through. I know of cases where church discipline applied because the leaders failed to remain "blameless" in areas such as finance and family discipleship. All this is very refreshing, especially given the background of my Pentecostal. Back in the days of my Pentecostal, anyone who has a decent voice spoke, a strong personality, and something interesting to say, could be a preacher, a teacher, or a leader in the church. Everyone considered "qualified until proven guilty." But in charismatic churches Reformed, qualification can sometimes seem unattainable for ordinary people. Excellent Leader.

The pastor of a small church Free Evangelical I have attended for about a year now offers a radically different approach that brings a balance is needed. He once told me: "Derek, if you can not do what I do, then I do not do the right thing. Qualifying Bible for leadership is the goal for all the people in our church. When there is a need for leadership, there must be a large pool men to choose from because we all learn to be a leader in our homes, and many of us would have achieved all these qualifications. "in my church before, leadership qualities seems to be reserved for the elite few who dare to make their run, but in here they are universal goal and is seen as a road map for the growth of every Christian. Although the bar has not been lowered, the grace to achieve it is now much more sharply in focus.

To summarize, I have seen three different approaches to the qualifications listed in I Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1.
  1. Making them is not relevant to under-emphasize them - ignore or play down their significance. 
  2. Make them could not be achieved by over-emphasizing them - sometimes to the point of elitism (which makes them practically irrelevant to most people).
  3. Aiming to instill them by making them attainable goals for all Christians - by grace and through the ongoing work of sanctification.
Certainly there is a need for special gifting in areas such as teaching, administration, etc., but I especially remember the character qualifications. In the list below, the only true gifting is "able to teach." All the rest is a matter of character.

Qualifications for Elders:
  • must be above reproach. 
  • must be blameless.
  • the husband of one wife.
  • moderate.
  • control himself.
  • honorable.
  • friendly.
  • able to teach.
  • not given to drunk.
  • not violent but gentle.
  • not quarrelsome.
  • not a lover of money.
  • must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.
  • a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge becomes wild and disobedient.
  • must not be a recent convert.
  • must have a good reputation with outsiders

Qualification for the Superintendent / Bishop:
  • must be blameless. 
  • not arrogant.
  • not quick-tempered.
  • not given to drunk.
  • no violence.
  • not pursuing dishonest gain.
  • to be friendly.
  • People who love what is good.
  • control himself.
  • perpendicular.
  • holy.
  • disciplined.
  • must uphold the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it

Qualifications for Deacons:
  • which become people worthy of respect.
  • sincere.
  • not involved in a lot of wine.
  • not pursuing dishonest gain.
  • must retain faith in the truth in conscience.
  • The first to be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.
  • must be the husband of one wife.
  • should take care of their children and their households.
  • their wives are to be women worthy of respect, the speaker is not dangerous but temperate and trustworthy in everything.
Biblical Character Qualifications for Church Leaders
Biblical Character Qualifications for Church Leaders
Here are the qualifications generally ignored for deacons of Acts 6.
  • known full of the Spirit and of wisdom.

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