Ordination

Friends,

It was my true pleasure, honor and joy to partake of the ordination of Michael Wilhite to the gospel ministry at Limestone Baptist Church in Bedford, IN last Sunday. I have known Michael since coming to Indiana in 2003- he and his wife Bethany and now child Abigail are dear to our hearts. Another dear brother of mine, Pastor Josh LaGrange of True Vine Baptist Church in Ferdinand, IN, shared the services with me as he gave the charge to the church and I gave the charge to the candidate.

Ordination is probably one of the least understood aspects of church life. Some have even questioned the practice altogether as not being biblical, but I personally support it and believe the Scriptures do as well. The whole point of ordination is to aid the church at large in knowing that believers of like faith and mind believe a man is called and gifted of God to fulfill the office of pastor (and also deacon and evangelist- more on that in a moment). We find evidences of this practice primarily through the ministry of Paul to the Corinthians. The Corinthians, for some very strange reason, desired to have prove his authenticity as a gospel minister by "letters" from recognized apostles or churches (2 Corinthians 3:1). The reason this request was strange is that Paul himself founded the church at Corinth- the very presence of believers in Christ in that place testified to his authenticity (2 Corinthians 3:2). Nevertheless, the practice of such "letters" was a needed one as the church of early days (and our days as well) was plagued with religious charlatans who taught heresy for the ends of greed. It was a great help for believers to recieve a letter from a recognized authentic pastor (likely in the earliest days to be kept to the apostles and their proteges). The same is the reason for needing ordination today.

Traditionally, a man claiming the call of God on his life to the gospel ministry begins in his own home church. If the church believes his call to be true and witnesses evidences of that calling in his life, they will generally "license" him. This license is no more than a statement to other churches that the man's home church believes him to be called of God. If a church receives this man and calls him as pastor, they then petition the church in which he was licensed in to ordain him. Now, the man has two witnesses to his ministry. The ordination service of his home church can be attended by any sister church and any ordained men of that denomination's church form a council to question the man before recommending him for ordination. The home church will normally act upon the recommendation of that council and verify it through an ordination service. By doing this, multiple witnesses and the authority of at least two churches converge to give the man ordination or a "letter" to all. In my opinion, this practice is useful and necessary to the health of our churches pulpits which in turn help to vouchsafe the gospel in our churches.
This is not to say, however, that the practice can occur different ways. In fact, every ordination service I've witnessed while ministering in Indiana has not occurred at a man's home church, but at the church where he has been called to pastor. While I don't believe this to be the best practice, I believe it is acceptable so long as a robust witness of churches and ordained men are present in the activity.

Furthermore, simply because the practice of ordination is useful doesn't mean it is free from faults. Too often ordination is little more than a foregone conclusion and questioning of the candidate is frankly pathetic. Sadly, this practice reveals itself later in churches who call men that failed to have sufficient knowledge of Christian theology, ministry and particular Southern Baptist beliefs. I have been privileged to moderate the ordination of two men to the gospel ministry- a privilege I take very seriously. I pray all who are blessed to participate in ordinations take them seriously and proceed only with a clear conscience that the man they are about to recommend to ordination are sufficiently prepared for the task of shepherding the dear flock of God.

Deacons, being the other office of the church, are likewise needed for ordination. This matter is a bit different, however, and although I support open ordination services for such men to the deacon ministry, I see little problem with this ordination being entirely in-house. The reason being that unlike pastors deacons do not automatically become deacons of new congregations they join. Furthermore, churches should seek deacons from their own congregations and not from other churches.

The practice of ordaining evangelists is so necessary as to not require comment. It is a good practice for a church considering asking the ministry of an evangelist to see what church he was ordained by.

Blessings,
TJ