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

Matthew Stuckey here from Verity Baptist Church Manila and Verity Baptist Church Pampanga, and I wanted to make a quick video explaining to you what is the definition of a pastor. What is the definition of a pastor? Now this is very important because the Bible actually defines what a pastor is, but you know quite honestly, especially here in the Philippines, the way most people or most churches define a pastor or who they call a pastor is not actually what the Bible says. Now let me just give you as a quick introduction, let me quickly tell you that the word pastor, bishop, and elder, these represent the same job but different characteristics of that job. We call people pastor generally in today's world, but it would also be biblical to call them bishop or elder. But what does it mean to be a pastor? What is the definition of a pastor? Well the Bible actually gives us guidelines on what you have to do beforehand before you can actually be a pastor. And in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, those are kind of the big places that talk about it. The Bible says that you basically have to meet certain requirements with your family. It says you must be the husband of one wife. That shows you must be a man married to a woman of one wife. So that means not zero wives, not multiple wives that you've been divorced, because that would fall under not being blameless especially, but the husband of one wife. And it also says you have having faithful children. And so I believe as it's representing one person here, but it says children plural, that means you have to have multiple kids. So basically you must be a man who is married and you have multiple kids. This is the bare minimum. Now the Bible says faithful children, and people could debate and have different opinions on how old those children need to be, or what do they need to prove, and things such as that. And so there are certain gray areas there, but it's not a gray area when it says faithful children as in plural children and you're a guy married to a woman. That is what the Bible says. And so here's the thing, since most Baptist pastors here in the Philippines are either not married or they don't have multiple kids, I mean, biblically speaking, they're not pastors. Now I can't say for sure exactly what are God's exact thoughts on these people that would take the role of being a pastor when they don't meet it according to the Bible. But look, we can't just say, well, let's just throw out the rules of the Bible and just, you know, you can take that position even though you aren't married or even though you don't have multiple kids. No, I mean, the Bible says that you need to have multiple children that are faithful. You need to be married, okay? Like I said, you could argue about how old do those kids need to be, and that's not, in my opinion, worth really splitting your argument over, especially for the sake of this video. But it does say you have to be a man married to a woman with multiple kids. And so if somebody does not meet those requirements, they're not biblically a pastor according to the Bible. The Bible also says, though, that you also have to meet certain characteristics. You must be blameless, you know, and it mentions a lot of things, you know, not just the familial requirements, but in terms of not being a brawler, not covetous, and a lot of different things there. Now when it comes to meeting those things, I personally believe that if you're the person who is going to get ordained as a pastor, you need to look at those requirements and really honestly assess yourself and ask yourself, do I meet these requirements? It doesn't mean you're going to be perfect on these things, but you need to look at your life. And if you're a covetous person, you're greedy, a filthy lucre, you're a brawler, then you have to understand you're going to have to make some changes or you won't meet those requirements. Also the person ordaining you, the pastor and the church that would ordain you, they're going to take a look at those things and make sure you meet them. Now unfortunately, churches are just kind of throwing out the rules and people are throwing out the rules, so they don't even care whether people meet these requirements. But biblically speaking, both the person being ordained and the church and pastor ordaining that person should really look at them and say, are they meeting these requirements for the most part? Now it can be a bit of a gray area on those things of whether or not you meet them because it's not just married or not married in terms of like it is the familiar requirements in terms of basically not being a brawler, not covetous and things such as that. But you should generally be meeting those things and if you're not meeting those things and you know that and you choose to get ordained anyway, then you know, look, you're just throwing aside the rules of the Bible. The Bible says you must meet certain things. But you know, also when it comes to actually being ordained, you know, obviously the church needs to look at you and say, you know what, we believe you're worth ordaining. What the Bible says is that, you know, basically lay hands suddenly on no man. And basically that means ordaining someone for the ministry is not something you do overnight. It takes some time, okay? So three basic requirements. You must meet familiar requirements, you must meet characteristics, and then actually the process of being ordained by a church. Now since you know it says not laying hands suddenly on somebody, that means as the person being ordained, you should basically have the attitude, I'm willing to go out of church and grow and learn and serve in the ministry and prove myself. And you know, not even wanting to be ordained within a couple months at some new church that you're at because you want to meet those requirements. And you know, the church should take some time before they ordain that someone to the ministry, ordain that person to the ministry and say, are they actually meeting these requirements that the Bible is stating? It says lay hands suddenly on no man. You say, why? Well, for one, it doesn't really matter why because if God says it, you just do it. But here's the thing. If you get practice and experience of running various ministries at a church, you're not going to do everything perfectly. You're going to make some mistakes. It's better to make some mistakes before you actually get ordained as a pastor and you're running a church than just basically going in with no experience and just making every mistake under the sun that there is. Now to the best of our ability, if we're going to be ordained, we should try to find a church that we can learn from and grow and get experience and serve in and basically be ready as we're actually getting ordained. Now unfortunately for some people, they don't necessarily have a good church near them where they could actually be a part of that training process and then get ordained like the Bible says. But to the best of our ability, if we have that, then that's what we should do. Seek for a church that's like-minded, that will train us, give us opportunities to grow and learn, and we just humble ourselves and serve. And then we eventually get ordained to the ministry if we're proven worthy. And so when it comes to these basic requirements, one, there are requirements in terms of family. You must be married with multiple kids and they must be faithful. And the exact age of those kids is up for various people's opinions. But you need to have multiple kids, the Bible says. The Bible also says that basically there's certain requirements of characteristics you need to meet. And so you need to look at that list in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 and say, am I actually meeting these things? And if I were ever to ordain someone for the ministry, I would have to take a look at those things and make sure that they're actually meeting those requirements before they would get ordained. And then thirdly, if you want to get ordained for the ministry, you should be willing to go to a church where you can get trained and spend some time. And part of it is just that the whole congregation, just in unison, just agrees with the decision to ordain you for the ministry. You've proven yourself. You're well respected and loved in the church. You've served at the church. And people agree with that decision. And if you just jump into a church for a couple months and you get ordained, then people at church aren't going to know you. They're not going to know if they can really trust you for the ministry. And so the Bible gives these basic requirements. And the reason why this is important is because quite honestly, you know, churches just don't do things this way at all. There's plenty of people out there that are being called pastors that they're not even married or they don't have any kids. And look, there's basic requirements that the Bible says, and we can't just throw aside. You say, well, we need good churches. Look, just because we need good churches doesn't mean we can just throw aside the rules. There's a reason why God has a set process, and obviously His way is going to work out better than ours. You know, maybe in the short term it feels like we'll get more souls saved this way and we'll have more churches. But what the Bible says is that, you know, we need to meet certain requirements. And so it's worth it to go through what the Bible process is. And so for me personally at this time in, you know, February of 2020, I am not a pastor. You know, people call me Brother Matthew Stuckey, and that's the best term to call me. I was ordained as an evangelist, and I have the authority underneath Verity Baptist Church and Pastor Roger Jimenez in Sacramento, California to basically run this church and to do baptisms and things such as that. But I'm not a pastor at this point because, you know, our daughter was just born a couple weeks ago. And so we have two kids, but, you know, there's still going to need to be some time as they get a little bit older before I'll get ordained as a pastor. Now me personally, people sometimes will call me a pastor and, you know, they're just trying to be respectful. So I don't just stop them and say, you know, no, don't call me pastor. But if somebody's at our church for a little while and they say that many times, sometimes I'll just kind of say, you know, kind of privately and quietly like, hey, you know, Brother Matthew Stuckey is the best way to call me. And since most everybody at church calls me Brother Matthew Stuckey, people kind of get that lead. So I'm not saying that, you know, hey, if you're running a church and people are calling you pastor, that you should just stop people and things such as that because if they're trying to be respectful, you know, there's no need to be rude back to them. But I'm just saying that, you know, biblically speaking, what is a pastor? A pastor is someone who is basically, you know, a married guy with multiple children that have proven faithful. They basically meet the characteristics found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. And basically they went to a church and had the proper training and then they got ordained by the ministry at that church after they had proven themselves worthy and they're meeting what the Bible says of lay hands suddenly on no man. So they were actually there for a little bit of time. And this is a very important video because here in the Philippines, there are tons of people that are being called pastors and, you know, they're not married. They don't have kids. They weren't ordained at a church. They don't have any authority from their church. And, you know, this is kind of the way Baptist denominations are doing things. And so it's an unfortunate situation but we need to go back to the Bible way of just, you know, men basically serving at a church, getting experience, meeting the requirements that God specifically states and getting trained and being worthy and then they'll be ready to start that church one day. There's no problem with just being at a church for a couple years. My wife and I, we moved to Sacramento, California to get trained for the ministry and, you know, decide we'll take some... We're willing to set our lives on hold for a few years to get trained for the ministry, do things God's way. And God definitely blessed us. I'm glad, you know, that we did that. Not just that we did things proper way but just that we learned certain lessons that are very valuable here as we run this church. So we need to just get back to doing things God's way. And so that is what the definition of a pastor is according to the Bible. Thank you and God bless.