Page 19 - Pastoral Ministries -Student Textbook

Study Section 3: The Pastor’s Ordination

3.1 Connect

Sometimes there is a lot of pressure put on a pastor to become ordained. Some pastors are
unwilling to enter the process of ordination. Some really don’t know why or what ordination is all
about. After all, if you are licensed by a church, you can perform weddings and funerals on behalf of
the government. So, what is all the fuss about ordination?

Ordination is the process that a pastor goes through to validate his calling and qualifications for the
ministry. In the process of ordination, a body of other pastors review his Biblical knowledge by asking certain
questions. They listen to the pastor’s testimony and determine whether they believe the pastor is truly qualified
to be a pastor. Ordination, then, is the public validation to an internal call from the Lord and a verification to the
church that the man of God is qualified to lead the church. Let’s learn more about it….

3.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to state the reasons for a pastor to become ordained.

2. The student should be able to describe the process of ordination.

3. The student should be able to explain what preparation is required to be ordained.

3.3 The Pastor’s Ordination

One of the attempts at commonality observed
in many pastors recently has been the
unwillingness of some of them to be ordained.
Such men believe that the ceremony places a
pastor in a class of persons separate from the
laity and for that reason should be abandoned
by the church. By refusing to be ordained, they neglect a
number of compelling facts.

Fact #1: A specific process was used in the early church.

Titus 1:5 is only one of many references pointing to the idea
of the ordaining process. Although it is unclear today exactly
what ordination in those days involved, it is fairly certain
that when the church recognized that a particular individual
had certain necessary qualifications, some type of public
ceremony was held to acknowledge the special role in the church that individual would be taking.

Fact #2: An ordaining council would meet prior to the ordination.

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