Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

CHAPTER 4 Qualified Leadership

“An overseer, then, must be above reproach.”

1 Timothy 322a

Jerome (A.D. 345-419) rebuked the churches of his day for their hypocrisy in showing more concern for the appearance of their church buildings than the careful selection of their church leaders: “Many build churches nowadays; their walls and pillars of glowing marble, their ceilings glittering with gold, their altars studded with jewels. Yet to the choice of Christ’s ministers no heed is paid.”1 A similar error is repeated by multitudes of churches today. Many churches seem oblivious to the biblical requirements for their spiritual leaders as well as to the need for the congregation to properly examine all candidates for leadership in light of biblical standards (1 Tim. 3: 10). This failure was dramatically highlighted when a leading evangelical journal in America brought together five divorced pastors and asked them to share their feelings, experiences, and views on divorce and the ministry. The joumal’s staff published the forum because they believed the growing problem of divorce among ministers needed to be faced openly and honestly. In fact, the article claimed that a recent survey of divorce rates in the United States showed that pastors had the third highest divorce rate—exceeded only by that of medical doctors and policemen!2 The pastors’ thoughts on divorce were presented in the journal through an open forum format. Along with the forum, the journal pub lished the responses of seven well-known evangelical leaders to the divorced pastors’ comments. What is astounding about the article is In a letter to a young presbyter named Nepotian, dated AD. 394,

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