Who preforms the wedding

Pretty much self-explanatory. They're too busy to do weddings. I presume that church members would want the senior pastor to do weddings. In a mega-church that could mean a wedding every Saturday, every week of the year.

 

I hope one of the pastors on BB answers this, but I would guess he might want to spend some Saturday afternoons with his family, perhaps do some activities with friends--fishing, go to a ballgame, etc.

Or do you think he should pencil in "perform a wedding" on every Saturday afternoon for the entire year?

 

Mega churches usually have someone on staff that handles most of the weddings and probably funerals. It's not universal across all mega churches but not unusual. If a church has thousands of people it's impossible to do everything you see pastors of smaller churches able to do.

Pastor the flock doesn't mean one person has to do everything, these larger churches have many capable people on staff to provide the shepherding that is needed.

 

This is not an easy subject for many reasons, but recently social/legal events have further complicated the issue.

As a pastor of a small, country church, I believe my insight may be of some value. I do not mind performing wedding services, but I do not believe that I am biblically obligated. Please provide one scripture demonstrating any New Testament minister/elder/pastor/preacher ever presiding over a wedding service or any scripture delineating what such a service is supposed to entail. We are given examples of Baptism, Laying on of hands, Charges, Sermons, Prayers, etc.; but I find no example of weddings ceremonies. If I were to pastor a rather large congregation and there were numerous requests for me to perform weddings, then I would probably consider this same tact. It would fall under the should we leave praying and the word to serve tables category, that the apostles dealt with in Acts.

As to complications concerning the current legal climate, I am nearly to the point of refusing to sign a state license. I perform a church service and provide a convenant of marriage for the couple, husband and wife, (signed & witnessed). At this point, I am still signing state licenses, but it may not be very long before I tell them, if they want a state license they can go to a JP, Judge, or captain of a ship for all I care.

Marriage was instituted by God and I see no place in scripture where God abdicated his authority to the state or the church. Liberal churches have no more right to redefine marriage than the state, and God will hold them all accountable. I am a minister of the gospel, not an agent of the state. I find no evidence in scripture where performing weddings is part of pastoring the flock. It is an opportunity to preach the gospel to people who might not come to church otherwise, and for that reason, I welcome the task, and yes I make sure the gospel is preached. However, if it became such a burden, that too much time was consumed with rehearsals, weddings, and receptions, and other more important areas were being neglected (including private family time), then I would have no problem refusing weddings all together, except for special situations at my discretion, which I am sure this mega-church pastor allows for.

 

Well at a mega-church you have a plurality of pastors, often working among the various stages of life who are just as capable, just as ordained, and just as called to minister as the two folks (Senior Pastor and Executive Pastor) listed above.

As I've seen it done, the Young Adult Pastor or Singles Pastor are usually officiating most of the ceremonies. This isn't to say the Senior Pastor or Executive Pastor don't officiate, they do as well. However, when your church is seeing upwards of 100 couples getting married a year (a very realistic number for most churches) you've got to distribute the ministry load.

So perhaps we can turn the question and ask the next one, why is a Young Adult Pastor or Singles Pastor (or Childrens, Youth, Music, etc etc etc) who have been properly licensed and ordained to ministry, less qualified to officiate ceremonies?

 

Br. Dan, nice post. And welcome to the board.

 

Well said.