Page 22 - Pastoral Ministries -Student Textbook

5. Ordinances
L) Procedural Matters
1. How and whom to baptize and why
2. Grounds for receiving members
3. Whom to marry
4. How to evangelize
5. Devotional life
6. Ethics
7. Deportment toward the opposite sex
8. How to work with church leaders
M) Personal Matters
1. When has the candidate last shared the gospel?
2. Is his wife supportive?
3. How easily does he lose his temper?
4. What will he do if the council votes not to ordain him?

Preparations to Be Made by the Ordaining Council

Whether or not there is a denominational advisory committee, the pastor who is helping the church make
preparations for his ordination will find it necessary to do the following:

1. Obtain the approval of the church leadership and of the congregation to call an ordination council.

2. Set dates for the meeting of the ordination council and for the ordination itself in the event the council
approves the candidate

3. Issue invitations to prospective participants from sister churches. Usually each of these churches is invited
to send its pastor and two other representatives.

4. Coordinate arrangements with the appropriate committee of the host church for setting up a room where
the examination may take place, providing meals and refreshments for council members and guests.

5. Settle upon an appropriate method of questioning. One method is for the ordaining council to select
three or more interrogators, each representing a major area such as systematic theology, Bible knowledge,
or pastoral theology.

6. Arrange to have hosts present when the delegates arrive to greet them, to equip them with name tags,
notepad, copies of the candidate’s doctrinal statement.

Suggested Order of Procedure for an Ordination Council

1. Call to order by the moderator
2. Prayer
3. Roll call of churches
4. Recognition of any guests
5. Reading of official action of the church
6. Motion to form council
7. Election of moderator
8. Election of clerk
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