(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

What are the qualifications for a pastor? And what does it take to start a church? Well, this is definitely a pretty big question. First of all, I kind of mentioned earlier, First Timothy chapter three and Titus chapter one give biblical qualifications. And I would say that just on the surface, number one, you should meet all of the requirements found in scripture. First Timothy chapter three and Titus chapter one. Beyond that, I also believe that you should be ordained by a pastor that's already scripturally qualified and meets the clear qualifications of the scripture. And by being ordained by a particular pastor, you would also then need to submit to and or meet the criterion that he has for someone to be a pastor. Because I also believe that when Jesus gave the keys to Peter of the church, and he told him that whatsoever thou loose on earth shall be loose in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall also be bound in heaven, applies to the fact that church has some level of authority to make decisions, to make determinations, and that pastors can make determinations as far as what their criterion is for a pastor and that that individual should meet the criterion of that ordained minister, that it's not simply, well, here's a checklist I found in the Bible and I think I meet it, so I think I should be ordained. You know, that's not following the pattern shown in scripture. I think that that violates a lot of clear scripture. To give you at least one verse, first Timothy chapter four says in verse 14, neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. So I believe that Timothy was a pastor and he was given that gift from the apostles and other elders of the church when they laid their hands on them, and very clearly it said here in verse 14 that he was given a gift and that gift was given to him specifically because there was a laying on of hands and it was done by the presbytery, which is a word that simply only found in the Bible once but it means kind of an elder leaders of the church. And so, you know, without having this formal process of a leader laying hands on someone, you know, sending them out, I don't believe that it's a scriptural ordination. Just to give you a sample, first Timothy chapter three, this is some of the qualifications found in scripture. It says, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given a wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. One that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into approach in the snare of the devil. So we have seven verses here found in first Timothy chapter number three that give us some of the qualifications of a bishop. I believe also Titus chapter one should be cross-referenced. I also believe that the instructions given to the deacon found here get a little more specific and they would also pertain to the pastor himself. And so there's a lot on this list. And to me, what people have to understand is that even though this list is given, this is not like a special list for pastors. This is actually what every single man should do. Every single man, especially one that desires marriage, should get married, have children, should be someone who's sober and faithful and trustworthy and ruling his house well and ruling his children well. Essentially the list is just saying, here is a standard of a good Christian. And from those who are good Christians, those are the people that are eligible to become a pastor. It does not make sense to put someone in the position of a pastor who's not a good Christian or who is inexperienced at being a good Christian. Because some people can be a good Christian for a week. Some people can be a good Christian for a month. Some people can be a good Christian for a year or two. But then eventually they wear away, they waste away, they get offended, they quit, they just simply backslide. And so someone needs to be a good Christian for a very long period of time to show that they're dedicated, to show that they're committed, to show that they're willing to weather storms in their life because being a pastor is a very important job. I personally believe it's the most important job that a man could have is being used by God to be a servant. And of course, being a pastor is not some lofty title of importance. It's more a position of servitude. It's one who's supposed to minister and to help others and to lay down his life and to be a shepherd, of course, under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And being a minister, being a pastor, I think a lot of people underestimate the toll that it takes on a person's life, that it's very difficult, it can be very frustrating, it can be lonely, it can really challenge you in every possible way. It's gonna challenge your marriage, it's gonna challenge your finances, it's gonna challenge your physicality, it's gonna challenge your mentality, it's gonna challenge your feelings, it's gonna challenge every area of life. And so it's not for the faint of heart. Some people think that their life would be easier if they were a pastor, but nothing could be further from the truth. A man that really wants to serve God and is going to follow the biblical model is only gonna have a harder life ahead of him than the life he previously had. And so therefore, it's important that someone's already successful in every area of life before becoming a pastor, because once becoming a pastor, all those areas of your life are gonna be tested, and we're gonna see how good are you at managing your finances, how good are you at managing your wife, how good are you at managing your children, how good are you at continuing to serve the Lord and read the Bible and have a walk with God and to not be self-indulgent. And a lot of these verses are talking about self-indulgence, not being someone that just is a glutton and someone that is consumed with covetousness, but it's really someone who's very selfless. And so, a pastor is a high calling, and we should have high standards. We don't want just anyone to be a pastor, whereas we see a lot of bad churches today because they don't have a high standard for pastors. They simply just let any yahoo. There's a lot of nepotism in Christianity today where people are just ordaining their sons, and oftentimes the son is not the father. I personally am against fathers ordaining their children unless it was absolutely necessary. I don't think that that means that someone has to be bad. If someone was ordained by their dad, I'm not saying they're a bad pastor necessarily, but I think that we should avoid that practice since we have an abundance of pastors. If there were a situation where we're destitute and there was no option, then of course we wouldn't wanna hold someone back based on that reason alone, but when given other options, it makes sense that the next generation of pastors should be ordained by people that have no reason to ordain them except for they meet the criterion. Myself included, my children, if my sons ever decide they wanna be a pastor, of course I'll train them and teach them and I'll give them everything that I have here, but I'll want them to go to another church, to serve with a completely different pastor, and to meet all of his criterion if they truly wanna become a pastor someday. And if they never do, I'm gonna love them the same as I would if they did. Just because being a pastor is a really important job doesn't mean that there isn't other very important jobs. We need every job. Every job is super important. Even being a mother is arguably the most important job. But at the same time, we need to have high standards for being pastors and starting a church, really, it doesn't even matter because if you're not gonna be a pastor, you don't really need to know that, number one, and really, you need to just worry about being a godly Christian. For those that wanna be a pastor or start a church someday, they need to stop worrying about what it takes to be a pastor or start a church and worry about being a godly Christian. They need to worry about studying the Bible and showing themselves approved unto God. They need to worry about being a good soul winner. They need to worry about being selfless. They need to worry about loving their wife. They need to worry about their wife loving God. They need to worry about their wife being someone who preaches the gospel faithfully. They need to worry about their wife doing the things that she does because she believes them, not because her husband's telling her to do that. And that was a big deal for me is, I wanted my wife to genuinely want to preach the gospel, to genuinely dress godly, to genuinely use a King James Bible for her to sincerely and through, in the deep parts of her heart, want to serve God because I knew when becoming a pastor that the pressure was gonna come from family members, from friends, from the world, and that if my wife didn't sincerely believe these things or sincerely wanna do them, she would struggle with that and she would not wanna do those things. And so it was important for me to lead her and to guide her and to help her to believe those things sincerely. And for me personally, if she never got there, I wanted to have the integrity to say, well, I shouldn't be a pastor. I don't want a pastor because I can't even convince my wife. And here's the thing, if I can't even convince my own wife to love God, to have a fervent zeal for the Lord, how could I expect to give that to other men who have nothing to do with me? Or if I can't teach and train my children, if I can't guide my children, if I can't discipline my children, how could I then church discipline men and church discipline other people and other families? So really, if a person wants to be a pastor, what they really should do is focus on being the best Christian they can be, focus on being the best servant they can in their church, help their pastor in every way they can ever think of, do things that they're not even asked to do, try to be the best person they can be. And of course, you can let your pastor know that you have that desire, but really, you should just take your hands off the steering wheel at that point and let God put you in the position that you should be in. I personally believe every man of God I know that if they have a guy going to their church that meets all the criteria of a pastor and is a great Christian and is serving in the church and doing everything right, that pastor's not gonna hold him back from great positions to serve the Lord. They're gonna put him into the ministry. And so, people need to stop worrying about if I'm gonna be a pastor or not, just start worrying about being a good Christian, and then pray and ask God to use you greatly. I've prayed a lot of prayers in my life about God giving me wisdom and being used by God, and that's what I wanna do. If I end up not being a pastor one day for whatever reason, I hope that I still serve God to the best of my ability. And no matter what, you can always be a soul winner. And let's be honest, that's the most important work, is just getting people saved, because at the end of the day, all this is going away. I'm not gonna be a pastor forever. We're all gonna just be in heaven, and those who are winning souls to Christ is gonna be what really matters.