Page 40 - Pastoral Epistles student textbook

Study Section 6: I Timothy 3 – Leadership in the Church

6.1 Connect

Here are some interesting statistics about pastors in the church in the US:

• 80% believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families. Many pastor's
children do not attend church now because of what the church has done to their parents.
• 65% of pastors feel their family lives in a "glass house" and fear they are not good
enough to meet expectations.
• 66% of church members expect a minister and family to live at a higher moral standard than
themselves.
• 90% of pastors report the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would
be like before they entered the ministry.
• 95% of pastors report not praying daily or regularly with their spouse.
• 75% of pastors report significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry.
• 80% of pastors and 84% of their spouses have felt unqualified and discouraged as role of
pastors at least one or more times in their ministry.
• 54% of pastors find the role of a pastor overwhelming.
• 80% of pastors expect conflict within their church.
• 70% of pastors do not have someone they consider to be a close friend.
• The average tenure of a pastor at a church is between three and four years!

It’s a difficult position being a pastor and even more so if the pastor is not qualified for the position.
That’s why Paul took so much time informing both Timothy and Titus the qualifications of becoming a
pastor. Today we are going to look at those qualifications…

6.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to describe the various qualities of a pastor and deacon which
are given in both I Timothy and in Titus.

2. The student should be able to differentiate between a qualification and a quality.

6.3 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

Since these two chapters are very similar, we will look at both of them at the same time.

1 Timothy 3:1-13.

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble
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task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife sober-minded, self-
controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not
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quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all
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dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own
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household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become
puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well
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thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
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