Home Pastors Articles for Pastors Are Some People DISQUALIFIED From Ministry?

Are Some People DISQUALIFIED From Ministry?

“Now, I urge you brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them”  (Romans 16:17).

Not everyone is qualified to serve and lead in the Lord’s church.

Don’t miss that — “to serve and to lead.”

In the Lord’s work, serving and leading often consist of the same activities, performed by the same people. The Lord’s best servants are the congregation’s best leaders. Those who lead best are humble servants willing to stoop and wash the feet or rise and lead the charge, whatever the situation requires.

The one unwilling to serve is unqualified to lead.

Recently, a pastor told me about a staff member his church had been considering bringing on board. When she balked at a background check, refusing to let the leadership look into her history, all the red flags went up and they called a halt to the proceedings. Something in her background apparently worked against her usefulness to that church. Finding this out before she came on board may have helped the church avoid a major problem.

The list of factors which disqualify people from serving and leading in the Lord’s church is endless, as it would include unbelief, a carnal lifestyle, moral problems, criminal records, a history of violence and so on.

However, there is a more selective list of conditions which disqualify otherwise good and respectable church members from serving and leading:

1. You are not qualified to serve/lead if you are unwilling to work in the background without recognition.

If you require recognition and appreciation, we will continue in our search for workers, thank you.

It’s not that you might be required to work in the unseen background, but your unwillingness to do so says volumes about your spiritual condition. A couple of verses come to mind …

“If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Galatians 6:3). “Through the grace given to me, I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment … ” (Romans 12:3).

2. You are unqualified to lead if you do not like change.

If you get saved, you change. If you grow, you change. If you go to Heaven, you change big time.

To restate, all growth is change. Growth into Christlikeness is major change. Eventually, the ultimate change comes when we see the Lord and become like Him (called “glorification” in Scripture; see I John 3:2). Speaking of that moment when we see the Lord and become like Him, the Apostle Paul said, “We shall all be changed” (I Corinthians 15:51,52).

To repent is to recognize the need for change in your life. No one satisfied with how things are repents.

The leader wed to the status quo is no leader, but a dead weight on the Lord’s program.