Ordination

The Bible is clear about God’s design for a properly ordered church. The local church is to be led by men who are set apart by the members of the church who recognize in these men a call of God upon their lives as displayed in the exercise of their gifts and abilities to serve the church as Elders. The overall responsibility of those who serve the church as Elders is to give oversight (episcopos) to the local church through the shepherding or pastoring (poimaynos) of the members of the church. These men who are called out by God through the local church are set apart for service to God in the local church. These men occupy the office of the Elder whose function is to provide what the members of the church need to grow spiritually toward maturity primarily through the proper preaching and teaching of the Word of God and the care of the souls of the members. This primary function that defines the office of the Elder also limits the office to men only.

These men are joined in the ministry of the church by those who serve as deacons. Deacons serve the church by giving attention to the physical and material needs of the members as well as in some cases giving attention to the material and financial needs of the church both as an organism and as an organization. Some churches have only men in the diaconate while other churches have both men and women serving in the diaconate depending on the parameters set by the congregation through her body of elders. The point is that the office of elder is for men only due to the function of the office. The office of deacon is for men only or for men and women depending on how a local church defines the function of this office.

This brings us to the question of ordination. The question of ordination is a slippery one for Southern Baptists for several reasons. Let’s begin with the Bible. The fundamental meaning of the word(s) for ordination is “to set apart” primarily through “the laying on of hands.” We see the concept of ordination on full display in the ordination of the priests in the Old Testament. The system of the priesthood served necessary functions under the Old Covenant in the operation of the fully developed and finely tuned sacrificial system which was at the center of first the Tabernacle and then the Temple. We then find the concept that we associate with ordination in, for example, the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas as “church planters” as recorded in Acts 13 as well as the “appointing” of Elders in the local churches that Paul and his cohorts planted on their journeys. We can add, of course, the appointment of what many consider the first deacons as recorded in Acts 6. And there are other texts that point us toward what we would consider the reasons for the practice of ordination even when we do not have a clear command from Scripture for its practice. Put simply, the Bible does not mandate ordination but at the same time the practice of ordination does not violate the principles found in Scripture to which ordination points.

Here is, however, in my opinion where it gets a little slippery. First, we are a denomination with few churches (although that is changing) who actually have Elders in place. What we have done it seems to me is either assigned that office and its functions to paid pastors and other church staff or we have seen deacons in our churches as elders. What I mean is that this is how they have functioned even when we did not use the term. The challenge with the first, which is way beyond the scope of this post, is that it opens wide the door for pastors with powerful and pleasing personalities to become popes. The challenge with the second is that it opens wide the door for a body of deacons to become a board of directors for a church that begins to act more like a corporation than a church. Our lack of clarity in so many of our churches about proper biblical polity has produced confusion about whom we should ordain and why. But we have a second issue that complicates the issue of ordination as well. Here it is: we believe in the priesthood of every and all believers. Now I don’t have time in this short post to get into how I think we have perverted what this precious doctrine means, but at its heart it means that you and I do not need professionals to give us access to God. That comes through our one and only great High Priest who alone through His blood gives us access to the living God. What it means simply is that we all stand equally condemned before God from birth with only one way of access to God. Preacher and people come to God by grace alone through faith alone by way of Christ alone. Thus, ordination does not create a difference between those who hold the office of elder and the congregation, but it does describe a distinction that has to do with the call of God to exercise a function that belongs to an office that has been established by God. Ordination does not lift the elder above but sets him apart as a servant/slave of God to be used of God to serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God among the members of the church. Ordination then is only for those whom the church recognizes as called by God and gifted to serve God in the office of Elder whose function is to watch over the church so as to provide for the members of the church what is needed to promote spiritual maturity and protect from satanic seductions of the members of the church. The subjects of ordination thus must be determined by what the Bible says about the persons who are to occupy the office of Elder, not by tradition or governmental liberties for claiming such things as housing allowances for those who or ordained, or even to a woman who claims a deep experience from God that has convinced her that she is “called to preach.” The setting apart for the ministry of the Elder/Pastor cannot be determined by any other criterion than what the Bible clearly states: this office and its functions is for men only.