How to Pick a New Pastor
The most important decision you can make in life concerns the eternal destiny of you soul. How does the Bible address that? In countless places the Bible tells you what you must do to obtain eternal life. You can go to John, Acts, Romans, Ephesians and many other books to answer that question.
The second most important decision you can make in life concerns who you marry. How does the Bible address that? Although the Bible doesn’t give you a fool-proof method, (in spite of the “Courting” theory) it clearly defines what a good man and a good woman is. If you have an ounce of good sense you
will:
- Be one of those people.
- Marry one of those people.
The third most important decision you can make in life concerns how your church should get a new pastor when your pastor dies, retires or moves on to another ministry. How does the Bible address that?
Not a thing! Again, the Bible lists the qualifications for a pastor but tells us nothing about what process we should use in picking a new pastor. There is one word of instruction given…why?
First lets look at the processes that are often used in picking a new pastor:
- The pastor appoints/recommends his son to be the next pastor.
Sometimes this works fine. Sometimes it leads to great problems in the church. - The pastor appoints/recommends a staff member to be the next pastor.
Sometimes this works fine. Sometimes it leads to great problems in the church. - The pastor appoints/recommends a preacher from outside the church to be the next pastor.
Sometimes this works fine. Sometimes it leads to great problems in the church. - The Pastor leaves the church suddenly (dies?) And the church forms a Pulpit Committee to pick the pastor
Sometimes this works fine. Sometimes it leads to great problems in the church. - The pastor leaves and church officials solicit resumes publicly for a new pastor.
Sometimes this works fine. Sometimes it leads to great problems in the church. - The church turns to a particular Bible college to supply a new pastor.
Sometimes this works fine. Sometimes it leads to great problems in the church.
Like it or not, God has told us nothing about any of the above processes. The Bible doesn’t tell us to use any of these. That doesn’t mean they’re bad. God simply never gave an approved format to follow in getting new pastor for a church when the pulpit comes open.
WHY? Why didn’t the Lord put a “1,2,3″ process for us to follow when making such a massive decision? Well, the fact is that we can’t get that answer from Him. Therefore we are let to speculate why He is silent about this occurrence. Here’s my speculation on why he did this. I can be wrong, but here it goes.
Man likes a “1,2,3″ process to every problem. You know, “Just follow these four easy steps and everything will work out all right.”
You’ve heard it many times:
- “Do this and loose weight and eat anything you want!’
- “Learn a foreign language while you sleep!”
- “Make $10,000 while sitting in your living room!”
- “Follow these easy steps and success is guaranteed!’
Sorry, but nothing is that easy! I think that if God had given us a format to follow we would confidently follow it without thought and expect 100% success.
Getting a new pastor is a critical decision. I believe that God didn’t give us a template to follow figuring we would get on our faces before Him and humbly, desperately implore Him to bring the correct pastor to our church. The grief associated with having the wrong pastor in a church is monumental!
When a pulpit opens up everybody in the church thinks they either know who the next pastor should be or thinks they know the “Divine Biblical Process for Getting a Pastor.” Even worse, if their candidate doesn’t become pastor they go on a rampage that achieves nothing but turmoil and damage to the church. (They do this, of course “In the love of Jesus!)
But there isn’t a God-ordained method which guarantees that a church will get the right pastor! If a church picks the wrong man it can cause great trouble in the church.
Am I saying that God is “wrong” for not giving us a format to follow? No! God is NEVER wrong! Am I saying that the Bible has failed us? Absolutely not!
God could have very easily supplied such a template. But then, we would have trusted the template rather than God.
It’s very much like Israel in 1 Samuel 4. They’d lost a battle with the Philistines so sent for the Ark of God. They thought it was magic. Then they lost the next battle and even lost the Ark to the Philistines. They had the Ark but not the God of the Ark!
We don’t need a pattern to follow. If we had one, we would follow it the best we could and never include God in the process, confident that the pattern would lead to success. Instead, we need to be scared to death that we’re going to botch the job. Then we need to go to God with that attitude and seek His mercy and grace so we don’t blow it! If He had given us a pattern to follow we would follow it confidently without including God in the process. After all we would have is “The Ark of God.”
So, if your church needs a new pastor you have nothing in writing to perfectly guide you through the process of getting him. BUT, you do have the Holy Spirit and if your church is able to humble their hearts and seek God’s face for guidance, then you have a pretty good chance of getting the right man.
It seems that one thing God doesn’t want us to have when seeking a church pastor is overconfidence. He would rather that we insecurely turn to Him for guidance. Well, we claim that our church is His church. Why wouldn’t He want a say in who becomes pastor?
Relying on the God of the Ark is better than relying on the Ark!