The Danger of Ordaining a Novice Into Christian Ministry

It is good that people express interest in Christian ministry with an aim to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. A desire for pastoral office is a step in the right direction. Paul describes it as a noble task (1 Timothy 3:1).

However, people ordained into ministry must meet biblical qualifications. One of them is that they should not be novices (1 Timothy 3:6). A novice is someone who is a recent convert or a neophyte. In other words, a novice in the Christian Faith is a recent disciple of Jesus. 

This means he is a beginner who has just started learning to walk with the Lord by the Holy Spirit. Though possibly gifted and active, he lacks spiritual maturity, tested character, doctrinal stability, and servant-hearted formation required to shepherd others without falling into pride or error.

Often, he is weak in the faith, unskilled in the gospel of salvation, untrained in the doctrines of Christ, ignorant of the Scriptures, uninformed about Christian servant-leadership, unaware of the devices of the devil, unschooled in the canonisation of Scriptures and church history.

Therefore, churches, denominations, institutions and ordaining bodies must critically examine the qualifications of people who seek to be ordained into the ministry as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. 

Now, the explanations above do not necessarily mean that a mature Christian is an old member of a church or someone who manifests a spiritual gift. A person can be a member of a church or can be seen to be following Jesus Christ for years and still be a novice in the faith. Many are not even born again. 

However, the earliest apostles were not ordained into ministry after three months or six months of theological training. Peter and his brothers were trained for more than three years under the tutelage of Jesus Christ, the Master Himself. Theirs was an unparalleled theological education.

Moreover, Paul was called in Acts 9, but he was sent out in Acts 13 — after years of obscurity, learning, and submission.

Timothy was gifted early, yet he was repeatedly instructed to grow in doctrine, discipline, and example (1 Timothy 4:12–16).

This should caution churches, Bible schools and other ordaining bodies to reflect on the caliber of people they ordain into ministry. There is no doubt that most of them are novices, babies in Christ, considering poor theological understanding of ministry, shallow scriptural knowledge and weak spiritual equipment today.

The danger of ordaining an unqualified person into ministry is obvious. Paul says “he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6). When you see a pastor with too much pride in his own worth or goodness, know that he was a novice when ordained.

Pride entered him as soon as he was ordained and addressed with a lofty title of nobility particularly Reverend which has no biblical basis. With these, he sees himself as a first-best Christian superior to the other believers considered to be second-best Christians. 

The cause of this is that he did not follow Jesus Christ long enough to learn from His humility, meekness and gentleness. Those who learn from Jesus may be tempted to be proud but they will not utterly fall. God has a way of keeping them humble (2 Corinthians 12:7).

However, a novice falls into the condemnation of the devil. In most cases, such a pastor eventually rejects Jesus, blasphemes the Holy Spirit, questions the relevance of the Bible, downplays the importance of preaching the gospel of salvation, preaches against heaven and hell, becomes a motivational speaker and mocks true ministers of the gospel.

Others never stop misinterpreting and distorting passages of Scripture, thereby confusing their hearers. They peddle the Word of God, deceive unsuspecting believers, dent the image of the Church and eventually lead many church people astray. 

When a pastor boasts of his achievements in ministry in terms of church buildings he has put up, he projects himself as a neophyte in Christ Jesus. God is not impressed with earthly mindedness but heavenly mindedness. 

Primarily, building the Church of God among other things is feeding believers to grow up into spiritual houses to be holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5). It is equipping believers for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12). It is conforming people to the image of Christ Jesus (Romans 8:29).

This can only be achieved when biblically qualified people are ordained into ministry. They are strong in the faith, skilled in the gospel of salvation, trained in the doctrines of Christ, knowledgable of the Scriptures, informed about Christian servant-leadership, aware of the devices of the devil, schooled in church history.

By James Quansah