| Arnetts | Arnett Family | Speaking Policy | Charles | Union Baptist Church | Links | Sermons | Letters | E-mail
 Jack's Main Memorial Page

INTRODUCTION:
Let us read two verses to start: 1 Timothy 3:1 "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." 1 Timothy 3:13 "For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." There is only one thing applied to two different groups of people that I want to really consider. Notice verse one speaks of the office of a bishop and verse 13 speaks of the office of deacon.

At first, I declined preaching today. I was hoping that Bruce Sparks, a former associate pastor at Union Baptist,  would be able to come or that David Warren, the OARBC state representative, would be able to come. When it was not to be, I agreed to bring this message. I agreed for this in order to weave in my reasons for staying at Union when I retired.

Pastor Laird, the new pastor at Union Baptist, has mentioned that some men warned him about taking a church with its former pastor a member. I spoke to a friend after I retired to give him the pulpit committee’s contact in case he had someone to recommend. He made it clear that he would not recommend anyone if I were going to stay at Union; he thought that was a terrible thing to do.

I am sensitive to the controversy. I have asked where is the scriptural principal or precept that teaches us that a church member should not stay at a church when he lays aside the office of pastor. I have not had anyone respond except to say that "every one knows it" or "it causes problems."

Does anyone think that I should go to a different church than my wife? She has served, as I have, under three pastors before I. My wife still puts in as much time for the church as she did before. Would it be fair to her to say that she had to leave her church because of the opinion of men?

I do believe I can show just cause from the nature of the office of bishop or pastor for me staying at Union Baptist Church

PASTORS: WHAT THEY ARE:
Our text speaks of the office of a Bishop. Strong says that bishop is the superintendent, or overseer of a Christian church.(1) The apostle Peter call the Lord Jesus the shepherd and bishop of our souls.(2) He is using the terms as synonyms and not as two offices. Elder is used in two senses in scripture, some times it refers to age, but it is also used to refer to an office. As an office it is used of administrators. I Timothy 5:17 reads, "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine." The second phrase says "especially they." Who are they? The elders! They are not two separate offices. There are some who are good administrators and some who are more noted for their study and preaching. That is true today. In fact we have all observed the distinction. We live in a day when good administrators usually build bigger churches than good preachers. Spurgeon was both.

So far we have elder and bishop referring to the same office. Looking at Ephesians 4:11 we read "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;" Most commentators agree that pastors and teachers refer to the same office. This is speaking of two different aspects to the office. Pastor indicates that the man in this office in the church is to care for the people. Pastor is like a shepherd. Teacher refers to the pastor’s responsibility to teach the people. This is like I Timothy 5:17 that refers to the same office.

Again, the Pastor is one who holds the office of pastor. The pastorate is an office.

Today, the most common term among Baptists is Pastor. Elder is becoming very popular among the Reform Baptist. Keeping that bit of information in mind we move on.

THE ORDINATION OF THE PASTOR:
This is critical to our discussion as will be seen later. What is the ordination of the Pastor? I know what the custom or tradition is. My question is what is the scriptural ordination of the pastor? We will consider the tradition later.

Titus 1:5 "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:" Pastors are ordained in every city, or in every Church. The word ‘ordain’ in the scripture means to appoint one to administer an office. (3) I have no office in the church so I am not ordained in the scriptural sense. Keep in mind that no church and/or no council can appoint a person to administer an office in another church. I no longer have an office in this church. When I laid aside my office, I laid aside my scriptural ordination accordingly.

Now according to tradition I am ordained. I did not lay aside my ordination according to tradition.

According to the scripture I was ordained when the church appointed me their pastor. According to tradition I was ordained, when I was examined by and had a traditional ordination ceremony. In fact I was glad for the examination. I liked the opportunity to have experienced pastors to examine and report to the church their opinion as to my readiness to assume the large task before me. But what did they confer upon me? Nothing! I even had an ceremony. The church desired it. I did not have men lay hands on me. I saw no purpose in that. The identification with experienced pastors was their report to the church as to my readiness.

Let us consider some passages: Acts 20:28 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." Which was it, the Holy Spirit or the Church? We trust the Holy Spirit guides the Church in their appointments.

We read that Titus was to appoint elders in every city. He was not an apostle. He was to guide the churches in the process of selecting pastors and teach them how to go about it.(4) Then read 1 Peter 5:2: "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;" The pastor is to take the oversight willingly - it is by mutual consent. That is why when Baptist Pastors lay aside the office they offer that to the Church and the Church accepts.

An important point is made in Colossians 1:7 "As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; and 4:12 "Epaphras, who is one of you, …" The point is that he was a faithful minister of Christ and he was one of them.

Brother Ron Thomas told me he would have preferred that we call a pastor from among us. But none felt that call. So we looked around and found Pastor Laird. The pastor must be a member of the church though, "one of you"

I think we have seen that the pastor is an office appointed by the Church of one of its members.

The pastorate is not a profession. A doctor is a professional, he does not hold the office of doctor. A lawyer is a professional, he does not hold the office of lawyer. I am a registered professional Engineer. That is not an office. I may have a job, but I do not hold the office of engineer.

The pastorate is an office in the church. The pastor holds the office, he is not a professional. The Roman and Protestant practice of ordaining professional clergy should not be among Baptist.

THE PASTORATE IS NOT A CLASS:
In America we are not so familiar with classes – we theoretically have no class structure. In the NT church there are no classes. Galatians 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." No classes in Baptist churches. There may be in the old world and there may be in Protestant churches.

When I laid aside my office, I was no less a church member than I was before. I am not to exercise the office as I am not in that office. Can you see where tradition can lead? Traditionally men are pastors, at least clergy, even if they are not appointed to that office. They are Ordained! WOW! But that is not scriptural. It is true that Protestants and Catholics have classes, but not Baptists. We have offices. Why do we not have classes? Revelations 1:6 "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Every believer is a priest. The office of Pastor is an administrative and teaching office. That is all!

An interesting side – John Gill said that when a man laid aside the office because of health, the church should continue to sustain him if need be. Well I don’t need it. Now today with short pastorates, it would not be practical for a church to continue to support the pastor, so they now contribute to his retirement fund. This Church owes me nothing; they contributed generously to my retirement fund.

Bro. Locher did need our help for a while. He was in the hospital. County Line Baptist gave their long time pastor the parsonage when he retired.

I am comfortable being a member of Union Baptist Church, I was happy to serve in an office, but I find it much more important to be a member than to hold an office.

DEACONS: WHAT ARE THEY?
One Baptist distinctive is that there are two offices in the church; Pastors and deacons. What is a deacon? Let us see if we can find the answer from the scripture. But before we do, let me say this – the word means servant. (5)

I Timothy three uses the phrase "the office of a deacon," twice. It is scriptural to consider the office of a deacon. Reading Acts 6:1-6 we find that men were chosen by the church to the office of deacon. They did not replace the work of the apostles but worked with the apostles in the administration of the church. They worked with the apostles to lighten the load of the apostles. The church had a need and the filled that need by vote of the church.

We have an advisory committee instead of a deacon board. Why? Because we only believe in two offices. The deacons were chosen to fulfill a need. If the church has a need for someone to oversee the work of the nursery, or the Christian education work of the church or to oversee the weekly cleaning of the church and they elect some one to do those tasks, what are they? Deacons! Do they hold an office that is not in the scripture? Do we as a Baptist church believe there are many different offices in the church? No, that is why the advisory committee is distinguished that way.

Deacons at Union Baptist Church. Our constitution, our way of doing business, says, "The Deacons (or Deaconesses) shall number as many as the church need to serve in any needed capacity."

So in keeping with the scripture, Union Baptist Church considers anyone a deacon who has been appointed by the vote of the church to a particular office.

There are some servants who are appointed by the pastor or a deacon and they are not deacons.

Sunday School teachers are appointed by the Christian Education Director who is a deacon. Some tasks are filled by volunteers, and some without many even knowing it is done. Bill and Ann Bailey do an awful lot and unless you happen to be down here at 6:00 am Sunday you are not aware of it. Carole Arnett does things that no one even knows about. Glenda Thomas does a lot of work on the flowers at the edge of the hill.

Deacons are servants who are officially appointed by the church. We also mention in our constitution a group called the advisory committee which are deacons because they are appointed or ordained by the church to be on this committee. The function of this committee is spelled out in our constitution. One of the functions is that they are for special business purposes and consultation of the Pastor in the administration of the Church. Shades of Acts six.

The Presbyterians have ruling elders to do that. We have no such office. We elect deacons according to the scripture for that purpose. The advisory committee assists the pastor in the administration of the church.

We have one man who is both an elder an a deacon in the official sense of the words. Brother Ron Thomas has been scripturally ordained, not traditionally ordained, to be an assistant pastor. He is an elder. He has been ordained (appointed) by the church as a deacon. He is a member of the staff and a member of the advisory committee.

CHALLENGE FOR THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
If in my dotage, I begin to lead a faction or interfere with the Pastor in his leadership, I expect the deacons to put me in my place. I don’t think you should wait on the pastor to confront me. The reason men don’t think a man who lays aside the office of pastor should stay in the church is because they consider them to be professional clergy. They are still professional clergy, in their mind, when they lay aside that office. A lot of people call me reverend. I don’t rebuke them. Some still call me pastor, I don’t rebuke them. I am listed before the world as a retired pastor. Because I have had almost 30 years of preaching, with the encouragement of my pastor, I offer my services to other churches if they need pulpit supply.

In my mind, I am a laymen, I am not a profession clergy. I don’t believe in classes in the church or a professional clergy. I trust I can be an example to others as one who supports our pastor, as I expect them to be to me.