Wrong Reasons for Seeking Pastoral Office, Part 2

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the fifth false reason for seeking pastoral office: an unmet psychological need for personal identity. He illustrates how individuals might seek identity through…

A kid becoming a bully due to insecurity and finding identity through physical dominance is used to illustrate how an unmet psychological need for identity can drive behavior, paralleling seeking ministry for identity.

Now, ultimately, the reason why a kid becomes a bully is because he's a sinner. But sin...

0:57 - 1:05 Read in full sermon

The point: The pastorate is no place in which to seek what can only be found in coming to grips with some great fundamental issues bound up in the biblical doctrine of man and salvation.

Teenagers dressing in 'funky' ways or adopting peer identities due to insecurity about who they are illustrates the broader human struggle for identity, which can be misdirected towards the pastoral office.

And his being a bully is not so much a calculated expression of his depravity as it is an accidental expression of that depravity, as it is an attempt to cut that channel through that insecure psyche. Same reason some people become oddballs, and they dress in a funky way. It's that they're really not sure of their identity. This is why kids in that period, when they don't know who they are, you know, I've got a face full of zits, I'm not in diapers anymore, but I'm not a full-grown adult.

1:26 - 2:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Young men ought to be wrestling with the whole matter of the doctrine of calling and sorting out career orientation and ambitions and making steps to become an able, competent provider worthy of a young woman's hand in m…

The scenario where a zealous, extroverted young convert is immediately assumed to be called to ministry, often because he's the only truly converted young man, illustrates an inaccurate view of biblical qualifications.

An inaccurate and inadequate view, an inaccurate and inadequate view of the breadth of the biblical qualifications for the pastoral office. An inaccurate and inadequate view of the breadth of the biblical qualifications for the pastoral office. I need not tell you men, perhaps you've had this done to you, that the scenario in many, many churches is if the new convert happens to be a young man with some measure of an extrovert temperament and in his new foundness, his new found love for Christ, he has a zeal to witness, study the Bible, help others, then immediately it is assumed that God's han...

9:38 - 11:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Young men ought to be wrestling with the whole matter of the doctrine of calling and sorting out career orientation and ambitions and making steps to become an able, competent provider worthy of a young woman's hand in m…

A young man rushing off to Bible school or seminary in his early twenties, then 'looking for a church,' illustrates the negative consequences of an inadequate view of ministry qualifications and premature entry into the office.

And what happens? At a time when a young man ought to be wrestling with the whole matter of the doctrine of calling and sorting out career orientation and ambitions and making steps to become an able, competent provider worthy of a young woman's hand in marriage and worthy of the respect of children, what's he doing? Running off to Bible school, running off to seminary. And then he comes out, in his mid-early twenties, and he's, quote, looking for a church.

11:30 - 12:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Young men ought to be wrestling with the whole matter of the doctrine of calling and sorting out career orientation and ambitions and making steps to become an able, competent provider worthy of a young woman's hand in m…

A friend's research on the ordination ages of 50 eminent servants of God, showing many were in their mid-to-late twenties, is used to counter a legalistic view that no one should enter ministry before age 30, while still affirming the need for maturity.

What a horrible scenario. Now, I'm not talking about the exceptions because you can produce a list of some of the most eminent men in the history of the church and the average age of their ordination. A friend of mine did this for me when someone was trying to make a case that no one should enter the ministry until he's 30 years of age. And he had quite a thesis, going way back to the age of the priesthood and our Lord's age, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

12:06 - 12:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin discusses the slower maturation of boys compared to girls, arguing that the comprehensive demands of pastoral leadership require a level of maturity rarely found in young…

The observation that boys mature slower than girls, particularly in taking on leadership roles as husbands and fathers, is used to underscore the unlikelihood of an 18 or 19-year-old having a realistic appreciation of pastoral qualifications.

McShane, Brainerd, and many of them were in their 30s, greatly used. So we're not being legalistic in this. But by and large, boys mature slower than girls do. I've met many young women that I was convinced were prepared for marriage at age 18 or 19.

13:05 - 13:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, when we come to those passages and make them regulative, then immediately we recognize that in most cases it is impossible to make those character assessments in boys. They are the character assessments of matur…

A person with natural fluency but no sound judgment, described as a 'blethering airhead,' who is encouraged into ministry and becomes 'big man on campus,' illustrates how superficial gifts can be mistaken for a call.

I'm saying all of that to underscore, you see, how unlikely it is that an 18 or 19 year old kid can have any realistic appreciation of the breadth of the Biblical qualifications for the pastoral office. And he can only have, in most cases, a romantic inclination to the ministry, not a Biblically realistic inclination and ambition. Someone else shows an unusual facility with words, natural fluency, but there's no sound judgment whatsoever. He's a blethering airhead. Blether is a Scottish word for one who runs off at the mouth, and you've got a good definition of an airhead. It's helped me durin...

15:12 - 16:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He that aims highest will most approximate to it. And I would say it is a non-negotiable standard for the bishop they must be.

An extended quotation from Charles Bridges emphasizes that the pastoral office demands 'many, nay, all excellences in happy combination,' not just a few talents, highlighting the comprehensive nature of the qualifications.

It is not to be supposed, he writes on page 30 and then up to the top of 31, that such an office can be easily filled. It demands not merely some, but many, nay, all excellences in happy combination. A person may, in a general way, be said to be qualified for the ministry who has talents for preaching, though not fitted for profitable private intercourse, or the affairs of church government. But this is evidently not a complete adaptation to the work.

18:46 - 19:23 Read in full sermon

The point: If leaders do not meet the biblical standard, they should resign, confess their inadequacies, and dedicate themselves to getting their house in order, thereby setting an example for the congregation to take the Bible ser…

A hypothetical scenario where church leaders resign, confessing their failure to meet biblical standards (e.g., not having their house in order, having a hair-trigger temper), is used to illustrate how seriously taking the Bible's qualifications could impact a church and its people.

So don't ever let people come at you with that specious argument. When I've preached at times on 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 I've had men say, well, if we had took that seriously, we wouldn't have an elder in our church. I said, good. Maybe if all you leaders resigned, taking the Bible seriously, stood before your people on a Sunday morning and told them why you were resigning, and you, Mr. So-and-so, confessed, I don't meet the standard, I don't have my house in order, I'm stepping down from my office, and apart from putting in the time at work that I must, I'm giving all my energies apart from a...

22:40 - 23:31 Read in full sermon

The point: In the secret place of your soul, ask God to bring the light of his word and slay any unmortified lust for authority, attention, or influence, taking it to Golgotha in light of the Savior's cross.

The analogy of an unwilling college student in the 1960s conscripted to go to Vietnam is used to explain 'not of constraint' in 1 Peter 5, contrasting it with a willing heart in ministry.

Well, you see what they loved was the authority, the attention, influence. And though in this passage I don't think there's any explicit reference to loving the benefits, the 1 Peter 5 passage surely makes this clear. Exercising the oversight not of constraint, not conscripted like an unwilling college student in the 1960s. He didn't want to go to Nam.

28:13 - 28:45 Read in full sermon