Part of making leader selection a spiritual process is recognizing church leadership as a spiritual activity. It seems to me that we often overemphasize a couple of texts in 1 Timothy and Titus (texts which fortunately had no context and can be lifted from those books, edited and joined together to create a list of requirements).
If I’m going to look at a list of qualities for church leaders, I’m going first to the Sermon on the Mount. Then Galatians 5:16 and following. Then 2 Peter 1:5-8. After considering these qualities, I’d take a look at the traditional lists.
What do you think?
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I think you’re exactly on the right track! Church leadership is, first of all, a spiritual activity with the primary objective of making disciples. This is impossible to do unless you are, yourself, a disciple of Jesus. I would add 1 Peter 5:1-4; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15; and Mark 10:35-45 to your list of pre-texts before looking at the famous “Qualifications” in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. While I was at it, I would pay close attention to 1 Timothy 1:3-5 together with Titus 1:9 (which is a part of the traditional “list”) with special emphasis on the “faithful word” in Titus 1:9 as explained by the “faithful sayings” in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. I blogged on these “faithful sayings,” beginning here with a link at the end of that post to a chain of other posts about each of the five “faithful sayings” in those three books.
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