{"id":91236,"date":"2025-10-14T08:48:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T13:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=91236"},"modified":"2025-10-14T08:48:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T13:48:58","slug":"can-elders-only-be-appointed-by-college-trained-preachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-elders-only-be-appointed-by-college-trained-preachers\/","title":{"rendered":"Can elders only be appointed by college-trained preachers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>I have a question. In the absence of the formally-trained or college-trained preacher, but under the guidance of homegrown or locally trained preachers, can a church start a process of nominating potential elders, declaration of desire from nominated members, church participation in choosing those with qualities mentioned in I Timothy 3 and Titus, and finally the appointment or ordination of elders?<\/p>\n<p>Do the scriptures allow only those with a certificate from college to supervise or lead the process of appointing elders?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Would you care to cite the passage that mentions college or formal training for preachers? None exists. Preachers are to train other preachers. &#8220;<em>The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also<\/em>&#8221; (II Timothy 2:2). Therefore, the foundation of your question is based on a requirement that does not come from God. All elders are appointed by preachers who learned to preach from other preachers. There is no school for preachers.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I have a question. In the absence of the formally-trained or college-trained preacher, but under the guidance of homegrown or locally trained preachers, can a church start a process of nominating potential elders, declaration of desire from nominated members, church participation in choosing those with qualities mentioned in I Timothy 3 and Titus, and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-91236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-elders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25118,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-elders-responsible-for-the-employment-of-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":91236,"position":0},"title":"Are elders responsible for the employment of preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I enjoyed and appreciated your article on\u00a0the work of the evangelist.\u00a0 I find it quite different from many by what you might consider institutional churches of Christ. I am concerned about the final paragraph on the selection of the minister.\u00a0 As I understand first-century history,\u00a0 many preachers were involved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15140,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-the-reason-denominations-want-married-preachers-is-because-they-confuse-the-office-of-an-elder-with-that-of-the-preacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":91236,"position":1},"title":"Isn&#8217;t the reason denominations want married preachers is because they confuse the office of an elder with that of the preacher?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to make a comment about\u00a0requiring preachers to be married. I have taken note that the denominations do not generally adhere to scriptural church leadership, and instead of a plurality of elders, they have a board of deacons and one 'elder' or 'pastor,' who also serves as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-be-done-about-a-preacher-whose-wife-no-longer-attends\/","url_meta":{"origin":91236,"position":2},"title":"What should be done about a preacher whose wife no longer attends?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a minister whose wife no longer attends church services. We have no elders. What should we do, or what should he do? (I Timothy 3:5). Answer: A preacher is not the same duty as an elder, nor does a preacher have the same requirements on him as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20574,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-selects-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":91236,"position":3},"title":"Who selects elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We are stuck in the selection of elders for our church, Only one brother qualifies to be an elder. In the absence of a church eldership, who does the selecting of a faithful brother to lead the church? Please help. We very urgently need the answer. Answer: The design\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9101,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-elders-and-preachers-constitute-the-church-in-decisions\/","url_meta":{"origin":91236,"position":4},"title":"Do the elders and preachers constitute the church in decisions?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been a member of the church of Christ for some time now. My family and I moved to another congregation to help out because they were very small. My wife and I began to have difficulties in our marriage. She decided to take our problems to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18358,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-preachers-wife-have-to-attend-the-same-church-as-her-husband\/","url_meta":{"origin":91236,"position":5},"title":"Does a preacher&#8217;s wife have to attend the same church as her husband?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong for a wife of a preacher (who is not a pastor and does not have his own church) to attend a different church, even though they both believe in the same faith (Jesus the Christ)? I don't believe it's dividing kingdoms because that means believing in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}