RECKLESS TRANSITION TO ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE:
By Prof Ben Onyeukwu
One of the problems ravaging the Church of JESUS CHRIST today is having certain elements with certain academic or professional backgrounds, that have nothing to do with Church Administration or any other ministerial assignments, assuming pastoral duties without theological or pastoral training. It is a reckless decision for medical doctors, lawyers, journalists, university lecturers, or people trained in other professions, who may have been called of GOD, amid their secular services, to assume duties as a bishop or pastor, in the assumption that their previous education, equally qualifies them for sacred duties.
The office of the bishop or pastor, is a sacred office that demands the highest level of moral and spiritual discipline, which cannot be obtained in any secular institution or schools without spiritual or moral undertone. This makes it vital, for those coming into the Gospel Ministry from other professions, to be trained ministerially, so as to become qualified and suitable for the holy job which demands uncompromised socio-spiritual discipline.
Having stressed the above, it becomes important to draw attention to a subtle infiltration of certain undesirable ministerial patterns which are often introduced to the Church of JESUS CHRIST today, by some individuals called from secular professions, who refused to be trained for their new duties as bishops or pastors. For instance, the idea of consulting a pastor with certain stipulated fees before prayer", which nowadays portrays the Body of CHRIST in bad light, is often traceable to certain elements who joined the ministry from medical or legal professions, without pastoral education. Also, journalists who joined the ministry without pastoral training, may have been the brain behind the "brown-envelope" syndrome, to the Christian Church, which is a dint in the journalism profession. The list is endless, as there are noticeable blackspots, from un-ministerially trained church personnel, from other fields of human endeavour, on the Church of JESUS CHRIST, and so, portrays it, as business center, instead of a soul winning foundation.
In conclusion, it is difficult for those who come to the ministry with just secular education to truly understand and adopt the ministerial standard which says that,..."a bishop (or pastor) then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. He must equally not be a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil". REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL! (See 1 Timothy 3:1-7).
