Three most important litmus tests for Pastoral Candidates is about testing and probing a candidate for the pastorate.
In this post, we will examine closer each of these three litmus tests for a pastoral candidate. But making these “the most important elements” I am not saying that there doesn’t exist other elements equally important, but at least these three should be extremely focused upon in your sessions with the candidate.
Written by Pastor Missionary David Cox
I.) His personal salvation.
II.) His family life.
III.) His preaching ability in expositing God’s Word, as well as his doctrines and practices.
The Three most important litmus tests for Pastoral Candidates
Perhaps I should comment on the idea of an “abusive church”. An abusive church is a church that perhaps has orthodox doctrine but has practices and conduct that is not biblical, un-Christlike. Most commonly abusive churches are seen by their refusal to believe in and practice Christian liberty. In order for these people to control the brethren in a way that is advantageous for them, they also use unscriptural church discipline. By this I mean that they use tactics like public shame over issues that they do not have strong scriptural basis for, and they do it in an unscriptural way.
Let me digress with an example. For example, a pastor says that his members have to attend ALL church functions, and can only miss if they ask their pastor for permission first, and he grants it. A valid reason is that you are sick and dying in a hospital. Family reunions out of town, visiting another church, etc. are all invalid. The person ignores this imposed asking-permission structure, so the pastor now publicly says embarrassing things about the family, revealing private matters or joking in such a way as to cause the family shame, embarrassment, or discomfort on some level. Perhaps he removes the man from the deacon board suddenly, or removes either husband or wife from responsibilities or service in the church, because the pastor “has doubts”. The point is to use press to cause wayward members to tow the line. This psychological pressure is what makes them abusive. (Here I would exclude members who are serving, but the pastor or leadership removes them because of serious problems, such as marital separation, infidelity, or drinking/drug/sex problems. Also doctrinal heresy that comes to light would be a legitimate reason for removal.)
Note: For brevity, I will not fully write out all of these verses, but put a small part of them. Those who wish to use these verses and plan should study each verse and point. (Go here to see notes on each of these points)
Let’s start with a definition of what is a missionary. A missionary is very simply a man of God who has the charge from God to carry the gospel message into a land where the gospel is not present, or is not abundant, and he organizes the converts of his evangelism into local churches which continue the work of the Lord after he is gone.
We do not find the work “missionary” in the Bible, but the concept is correctly identified in persons such as Paul, Barnabas, Luke, Mark, Titus, Timothy, and others. Technically missionaries have to be sent out from a group, and there are no “home missionaries” per se. Home missionaries confuse completely the concept of missionaries. Should those who are home missionaries now cease their ministries? No. They should be understood as being a part of a church in their area.
