Pastor Elections & Deacons

I have never seen nor do I know of a church that has pastor elections. It is a silly thing to turn the choosing of a pastor into a political event.

 

I'm not in Mexico and I stay informed on what goes on in churches in general. Also you set up a false dichotomy. There are more ways that one way to choose a pastor under congregational governance. If pastoral elections are going on anywhere they are an anomaly not the norm.

 

(I posted this earlier and for some reason the post didn't take...so here we go again...)Every baptist church in my neck of the woods holds a pastor election. This is typically done in Conference, while discussing the business of the church and then electing officers in the church for that upcoming year. We're smaller churches that don't have a "staff" running the front office, mainly because we don't have a front office.

Each position is elected to a term of one year. Other churches in the area elect pastors for 2 years. One church elects a pastor and he is "in office" until the Lord tells him it is time to move on.

 

If by "pastor elections" you mean that two or more men have their name on a ballot and the church votes which man they want as pastor - I'm totally against that.

If you mean that the church body comes together to vote on a single pastoral candidate by a "yes" or "no" vote - I'm in favor of that.

 

Should've added that clarification to my post. Thanks, Pastor_Bob.

The churches I was talking about only vote on one candidate. There is no secret ballot with multiple names, and it's not like the person campaigned for the job.

 

If that is what is meant by election then the term is a misnomer.

 

I see your point, Rev, but once we start debating terminology and semantics, we open the door for loads of nitpicking.


So what would you suggest instead?

 

Boilerplate church constitution and bylaws language suggested by the Southern Baptist denomination's North American Missions Board:

http://www.namb.net/namb1cb2col.asp...=1&ekfxmensel=e9edebdf8_8589935408_8590116693

[Bylaws II. A. 3.] "(d) The pastor's election shall take place at a meeting called for that purpose, of which at least one week notice shall be given to the members."

 

Well, this isn't the NT model so I would say it appears to be an unwise method.

If a man isn't staying sharp and doing his due diligence in preparing sermons and teaching from the heart, then it doesn't matter what system he is in. He is failing as a pastor.

I've not seen this kind of system work well.

 

I've seen it many times, salzer. I've seen men basically entrench themselves as pastor and basically turn it into their church instead of a church following Christ.

The south has some weird tendencies, preachinjesus. When it comes to autonomy of the church in picking their own pastors, you'd probably have to pry that right from their cold, dead fingers.