I know of a COG pastor who went to a church for over a decade, serving on staff at some point, who eventually became the pastor there.I notice that Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every church and Paul told Titus to appoint elders in every city. The general pattern seems to be that elders in the Bible were a part of their own congregation before being appointed as overseers over it.Elders are told to pastor the church of God over whom the Holy Ghost had made them bishops/overseers (Acts 20:28.) Compare the verb poimnion [to pastor, to tend] to poimen, the word translated ‘pator’ elsewhere. I Peter 5 also tells the elders to pastor the flock of God, promising a crown to those who do so as the passage instructs when the chief Pastor shall appear.
It worked for Mt Paran.From Walker to Cooper.When my time comes our Congregation will select from the Ordained Elders they have already confirmed and qualified.It’s the New Testament way. ________________Charles A. HutchinsSenior Pastor SPWCCongregational Church of Godwww.spwc.church
Timothy was half-Greek and not originally from EphesusJohn was Galilean and not from any of the 7 cities he oversaw. Peter was most certainly not Roman.
“ So how would things change if ABs in the COG denomination began to look for pastors from within the congregation, from the elder board or church council, depending on how that is set up, from church staff, etc.?”Well, seeing as how that would make sense, you will never see this happening in the cog. The AB would have to relinquish a certain degree of control over the process for this to happen. Care to guess how likely that is________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
If the former pastor was in an adversarial position against some element of the church, a handpicked successor might make matters worse. But if the successor comes from the other side, that makes things bad also.Sometimes, you need someone that neither side owns, but can come in and make the needed changes.In my experience, I cannot think of a more carnal times in a church’s life than when it comes to pastoral change. You talk about politics, anger, etc. Just pitiful. And about like how funeral homes can take advantage of a family when they are trying to bury a loved one, so, too, can leadership take advantage of the difficult matter of pastoral change. Thankfully, though, I have hear precious little of this for a number of years not. Almost certainly because of Actscelerate making it difficult to do such a thing in the dark.Very simply, if the church is strong, growing, and happy, then a well-loved successor from the ranks can be a wonderful thing. After all, they know the culture and situation of the church better than others.
________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
There was a disagreement about how widows were being fed in the church in Jerusalem. The people put forth some men from within the congregation to handle it. That seems to have resolved the conflict.