What does it mean that Mike and John will be ordained this Sunday?

This Sunday Mike Noel and John McLeod will be ordained as elders at Sovereign Grace Church. But what does it even mean to be “ordained”? Aren’t they basically elders now? What will change after Sunday? We want to take a minute here and think about these questions and a few others. This will help us to approach the event with the proper attitude.

What does it mean to be “ordained”?

The word we use to describe what’s happening this Sunday morning is “ordain.” We aren't alone in using the term. Traditions like the Presbyterian Church of America say this,

Ordination is the authoritative admission of one duly called to an office in the Church of God, accompanied with prayer and the laying on of hands, to which it is proper to add the giving of the right hand of fellowship. (Book of Church Order, 17-2)

For the PCA, ordination is about a man officially stepping into "an office in the Church of God," and this happens with prayer and the laying on of hands. Merriam-Webster sums up a number of traditions and says "ordination" means “to invest officially (as by the laying on of hands) with ministerial or priestly authority.” This is actually a helpful definition because it includes the mention of "ministerial...authority." The point here is that it isn't just a job or list of tasks the man will do, but it's actually an authority that he will receive at this moment. Now since all of us are priests and all of us are ministers, this definition isn’t perfect, but it gives at least this aspect of authority.

The Bible actually doesn’t use the word “ordain” to describe this process. It simply says that men are “appointed” to this task. Titus is told to “appoint elders in every town” for this office (Titus 1:5), and Paul and Barnabas “appointed elders…in every church” (Acts 14:23). Places like Acts 6:3-6 connect this appointing activity with prayer and laying on hands (cf. 1 Tim. 5:22; 2 Tim. 1:6). So we can assume that when a man was appointed as an elder and officially set in office that others laid hands on him and prayed for him.

Ordination is a biblical concept, then, even if it isn't a biblical word. It is appointing a man to the office of elder and investing him with the authority connected to that role. And the biblical precedent is that we do this with prayer and the laying on of hands. So, ordination at Sovereign Grace Church means that Mike John will be invested officially with the authority of an elder (or pastor or overseer, the terms being synonymous in the New Testament).

What does it practically mean to be ordained, or what changes after a man is ordained?

Laying on hands and prayer are what happens at the moment a man is ordained, but we still don’t really yet have a sense of what it means at a practical level to be ordained, do we? As we said above, ordination is when a man is entrusted with an office in the church that has a specific kind of authority that goes along with it. It is that moment when a called man goes from being a potential elder to an actual elder. He goes from being someone who wants the office and is qualified for the office (1 Tim. 3:1-7), to being someone who now has the office. He goes from someone without the authority of an elder to being someone with an elder’s authority. It's something like what happens in a wedding when a man and woman make vows and exchange rings and suddenly they are husband and wife. They went in to the ceremony as two singles, they came out as "one flesh" (Gen. 2:25).

Further, Hebrews 13:17 says to “obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” This implies authority and responsibility. It is only right to submit to people who have God-given authority over us. An elder has this authority.

An elder has responsibility for particular sheep who are entrusted to him. That’s what it means that he is “keeping watch over your souls” and why he “will have to give an account.” The sheep belong ultimately to God. They are “the church of God” (Act 20:28), but the elder is one entrusted to care for a specific segment of God’s flock. Of all the Christians in the world, he is called to this particular group in this particular place and time. They are his care, his joy, his goal, his focus, his concern.

Thus, when a man becomes an elder he becomes responsible for certain sheep of God’s flock, and those sheep are now under his care. They submit to him; he keeps watch over them. He does this as one under authority himself, but he does it nonetheless. He knows that there is a “Chief Shepherd” over him (1 Peter 5:4).

After we pray for and lay hands on Mike and John, they will become shepherds under the Chief Shepherd who are entrusted with the sheep of Sovereign Grace Church. They will give their time, energy, and devotion to see that these sheep flourish in the Lord. And likewise, the church will be called by God to submit to them as men with ecclesiastical authority in this place.

By the way, this is another reason why church membership is important to us. Just as a sheep needs to know who his shepherd is, so a shepherd needs to know who his sheep are. If he will "give an account" for certain sheep (Heb. 13:17), then we need to have some way to define who those sheep are. For us that process is church membership.

An outpouring of grace

All of this means that Sunday will be a significant event. Yet, it will also be a joyful one, nothing less than the grace of God at work in our midst, continuing his outpouring of mercy to see our church grow to full maturity:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:11-13)

We hope you are as excited as we are to see two such gifted and godly men called into this life of service in the name of our Savior and Lord. Please pray for them yourselves as we anticipate years of fruitful ministry from them in this fellowship.

Daniel