Date:   04/11/2010

Text:   1 Timothy 3:1-7

Title:   10 Qualifications for Church Leaders

Theme: Since the church is God's visible kingdom on earth, therefore the leaders are held to high standards.

Introduction:

Woody Densen was convicted of keying his neighbors SUV in Rice Village last year. I know this happened in many places and we may have been victims in the past. Except Woody Densen was a former district judge.

We have heard this, “Falling in love with you could really mess up my plans for becoming president.” Sure, we have heard this before. Except these are from one politician who was in the 2008 presidential race. It not only messed up his presidential bit, his marriage was ruined. He was having an affair while his wife was suffering from terminal cancer.

The former president of an Asian country was imprisoned because he and his family embezzled millions of dollars during his presidency.

There are constant news about priests and clergy members involved in sexual misconduct and child molestation.

They were leaders of one kind or another. In a different time, leaders were often respected and looked upon as role models. Today, we often look at leaders with a sense of contempt and disdain. Unfortunately, the Christian church is no exception.

There is a widespread disappointment with leaders, including the elders, deacons and pastors in churches around the world. Congregation is disappointed with their pastors and elders. While the elders and pastors feel frustrated because they were not respected.

Again, this is not a 21 st century problem. Even in the early years of the Christian church, or for that matter, in the OT, prophets and later elders and deacons had brought disappointments to God's people.

For this reason, in 1 Timothy 3:15, we have these words, “ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth.” Paul wants to make sure Timothy knows and teaches his congregation about how to conduct themselves in church, in God's family. For the last few months, we studied that when believers come together, how we are to worship and pray. Now, in today's passage we are told what to expect from the leaders of the church.

During the last 14 years at HCC, I have taught on this passage many times, and preached once or at the most twice on this passage. In this passage there are 10 qualifications for church leaders. As if Paul was telling Timothy, “if anyone is looking for a position in your church, here are the 10 questions to ask.” In order to make sure we understand the meaning of these words, unlike my previous sermon on this passage, I will spend more time on each of these qualifications. I will need two Sundays to complete this section.

I •  Leadership in church is a honorable task.

In vs. 1 we have the 2 nd trustworthy saying. The first one is found in 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,..” Now, the 2 nd trustworthy saying, “ If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” In that first century, overseer refers to someone in the leadership position that oversees the church. Overseer is the same word as elder or pastor. For this reason, the word overseer is used to describe an elder or pastor. It is a position of spiritual leadership. This morning, I will intermingle the following words; elders, overseers, pastors and ministers. I will also use Spiritual leadership as an umbrella to bring these words together. Here we learn that spiritual leadership is a noble task.

How so? First it is leadership in God's household. Yes, God is the leader of all the churches on earth. But He works through human leaders. The second reason is the nature of the work. From Acts 20:25-35 and 1 Peter 5:2-3, we have a glimpse of such work. “teach God's plan of salvation, pay careful attention to God's flock, caring for God's people through examples and not lording over them, p rotect God's children from enemies, (those who wants to pull away God's children from Him), and self-giving.” This is the work of overseers. It is doing God's work on God's behalf. This is the reason for its nobility.

II •  Leadership in church demands high standards.

Because this is a very noble task, those who do this work must be held to high standards.

1 •  Reputation. The first general quality of an elder/pastor is ‘above reproach'. Vs.2, “ Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,” It is also translated as blameless. It is about observable behavior. This does not mean he is without sin. If so, no one will be able to be an elder. Blameless means that when we sin or make a mistake, we own up to it. We repent and seek forgiveness from God and men. And then with God's help, we do not repeat the same offense. When we put vs. 2 and 7 together, “ Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” it means that the spiritual leader, the elders/pastors are to have good reputation both inside and outside the church. How do we know? We observe and ask around. This is where references come in. We ask others about a person we don't know well. We are to find out the person's observable behavior and attitude in the 10 areas mentioned in these verses.

How about when others ask us about a certain person? Again, we need to have these qualifications in mind and be honest with our answers. Recently an elder of another church shared this with me. “Our previous pastor was with us for 7 years. By the time he left, we had a church split, bringing great hurts to the body of Christ, and bad testimony to the Chinese community. We called the pastor who referred him to us 7 years ago and asked about this pastor's temperament and other issues. He replied by saying, ‘I am truly sorry about this. I was aware of all these but felt he may change.'” Because of the lack of honesty, priests and ministers go from one church to another, creating great damage to God's church and His reputation.

As a church, her members need to have a clear understanding that the spiritual leader, an elder or pastor must have a good reputation and blameless conduct.

2 •  Marriage accountability. “the husband of one wife…” this has to do with his marriage, or domestic accountability. This does not mean to be an elder you have to be married. This is not an issue about divorce and remarriage. It is also not about a widower getting married again. In Kent Hughes words that we often focus on the quantitative aspect of this verse: how many times you have married or how many wives you have of have had. Those are all issues need to be considered. But the emphasis here is about the quality of our marriage. It is about being faithful to one's wife. If there is unfaithfulness in marriage, then this person is not qualified to be an elder, a spiritual leader.

Actor Peter Graves died on 3/14/2010. He was best known for his leading role in Mission: Impossible. It was reported that he was a devote Christian and married to his wife for 60 years. This is certainly a rarity in Hollywood. This is a husband of one wife.

For an elder to teach doctrine, to exercise church discipline, he must be held to a high standard of marital accountability. Many politicians, sports and entertainment celebrities, and even many ministers need not apply.

3 •  Self-mastery. We'll group the next three words together; “ sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable..” We call them Self mastery. Let me use an incident in David's life to illustrate this.

During Absalom's rebellion, David fled from Jerusalem. One of Saul's descendents, Shimei, followed him and threw stones, dirt and cursing him. Only a word from David and one of his soldiers would have taken care of Shimei. With self-mastery, David did nothing and trust that God would revenge for him. This story ends with these words, “ So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.” This is self-mastery at its best.

Sober-minded means clear headed. This is what David did in that stressful and humiliating situation. It is the opposite of being drunk. A leader needs to think, teach and make decisions. It is hard to do that with a fuzzy mind. It's like after 15 hours of flight from China to NY, I dozed off at the gate while waiting for my connecting flight to come home. I woke up and looked at my watch, oh my, the plane will leave in 15 minutes. Then I also realized that they had changed the gate. So I had to get on the transporter to go to the new gate. By the time I got there, no one was there and asked the attendant if I was too late for the flight to Houston. They me the flight was delayed. I was totally confused about the time, for I can't remember if I am on Houston time or NY time. I was not sober minded. There is no way I can think straight under those conditions.

  Self-controlled is straight forward, ability to control oneself. This was what David did in that situation. This was what Jesus did when he was insulted and ridiculed by the Jewish and Roman authorities. This is the fruit of the spirit. Proverbs 25:28 ,“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Without self control, is a broken city, a defeated army. In Proverbs 16:32, “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” Real power is not how strong you are, but whether or not you can control your spirit.

  Then there is respect. This has to do with how others see you. Self-control is an inner quality. When this self-control is expressed, it will gain other's respect. How do we know when we are respected? When they ask our opinions and listen to us. As elders and pastors, sometimes we are so busy in giving out answers or telling others what to do, we have forgotten if anyone ever asked for our input or even listening to us. Respect is an outward expression of self-control.

As a leader, especially pastor, we often work with little supervision. When we are at home, when we travel, we are often by ourselves. This is why self-mastery is so important. It saddens me when believers here and other churches ask me how they can keep track of their pastors. We are suppose to supervise and master ourselves. The scripture is so clear, that without self-mastery, a person is really not suited to be an elder/pastor.

  We have to ask God to help us with Self-mastery. It is from God. As a spiritual leader, as an elder or minister, self-mastery is a must.

4 •  Hospitality. After self-mastery, the next qualification is Hospitality. Literally it means loving strangers. To care for them and to open one's house to them. In those days, there were no hotels and the roadside inns are often dirty and dangerous. When ministers or believers travel to different cities and villages, they would need to depend the local believers to open their homes to take them in.

A pastor shared this about his teaching ministry in a certain part of China. The most precious food they had there was chicken eggs. During his 10 days of teaching, everyday they would give him 7 eggs. How can you turn down others when they gave you the best? Imagine, by the end of 10 days, he ate70 eggs. This is hospitality.

As spiritual leaders, we are to open our homes to others; inviting them to our dining table. If I understand the scripture correctly, hospitality is more than opening your home to small groups or fellowship pot-lucks. It is opening our homes to those who are lonely and with needs. I know this can be tiring. I like to make a simple suggestion: being hospitable is different from entertaining guests. When we entertain guest, we want cook up a storm and want to make sure the house is spotless. In this day and age, with our busy life-style, not too many of us can do this. To be hospitable means to open my house to minister to others. Food can be simple and house does not has to be spotless. A spotless house can make guess feel uncomfortable, not knowing if it's ok to touch this furniture and can give the impression that little ones, especially the active ones are not welcome here. A home does not need to be spotless, for adults and children live in it. A home is not a 3 or 5 stars hotel.

  Up until 15 years ago, I remember when I was invited to speak at different churches, I usually stayed with one of the church members. I enjoy the fellowship time with them and helping me to know them more. Then I notice there is a new trend. One time after getting off the plane, the pastor said, “we'll put you in this motel for the weekend. We'll come and pick you up in 3 hours.” Now, it has almost becomes the norm; putting the guest speaker in one of the hotels. I have the feeling that we feel hospitality is too much work, therefore put him in a hotel. Certainly, there is more privacy in a hotel, but we also miss out the joy and fruits of receiving guests and missionaries.

Hebrews 13:2, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Peter further instructs us in 1 Peter 4:9, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” These are God's words on hospitality. Hospitality is self-giving. You see, without self-mastery, it is difficult to be self-giving. Remember, hospitality is a requirement for church leadership.

Conclusion:

  I will continue on with this passage next week. As I was working on this sermon, by the time I come to this fifth qualification, my heart becomes heavy. I recognize being an elder/pastor in a local church is a very serious matter. It is serious and honorable, not because of the position, but the content of the work. Because its so honorable, there are high standards for those who serve as elders and pastors. Whenever I read these words, I also see how far we are from it. Because we fail to live up to such standards, we've brought great shame and pain to God's people, God's church.

I remember from the early days of my pastoral ministry, I taught this passage. I often ask myself, am I setting a standard that is too high for the church leaders? Am I being too hard on the elders and ministers? There are plenty of self doubts. But, each time I come back to this passage, I knew this is God's expectation for leaders in his church. Why such high standards? Because their work is very noble. They are to be God's representatives caring and watching over God's people. Because the work is so noble, therefore the works are held to high standards.

In the secular world, we emphasized on accomplishment. In the now famous words of Tang ShaoPing, “I don't care whether it is a white or black cat, as long as it can catch rats.” However, God does care whether or it is a white or black cat. He wants individuals who can live up to his standards to oversee and care for His people.

Certainly none of us is capable and worthy of carrying out such noble task. For this reason, we have to come repeatedly to our lord, on a daily basis to seek his help to be the persons He wants us to be.