Hello dear reader,
Like the title of this site I truly believe that life is for living. I believe that with a little of the right kind of knowledge there can be no end to the quality and richness of life that can be found in Christ. It is my hope that every article that is posted on this site will, in some little way, help you on your journey.
I heard the gospel for the first time in 1988, two weeks later I gave my life to the Lord. I soon grew fond of the Word and began, what has become, a life time study of the scriptures. In 1991 I studied at Joshua & Caleb Bible college achieving a certificate in biblical studies. After bible college my love for Word of God grew deeper and I continued private study and preparation for preaching. In 2002 I returned to formal bible studies for 18 months with "Internet Bible College" achieving a certificate in biblical studies with honours.
I have been involved in street evangelism in the city of Perth Australia, and in the early nineties helped to plant a church (Bread Of Life City Church) which is still going strong today under the care of Dr Danny Moses. My role in this church was more of an assistant to Pastor Moses, and on occasion I would preach. I have also preached at various times through out home churches in Perth whilst engaged in fulltime employment.
After completing a 17 lesson discipleship course I became an independently ordained Christian minister through "The Church of Living Water" America, and feel that God has called me teach His word. I have developed this site to fulfill, in part, that call.
For a better understanding of what I believe it means to be an independently ordained minister of God, I have posted this message from Pastor John.
Should All Believers Be Ordained?
Pastor John Miller, TCOLW
As all of you know, The Church Of Living Water ordains any believer who requests ordination, is baptized, is currently attending a local Church and completes our 17 Lesson Discipleship course. Some, if not most denominations give little or no credence to ordination by mail. They have made some good objections as to why they do not recognize this type of ordination. In this message I would like to answer to some their objections.
The first objection is this: ordination should only be given to a believer that has attended a reputable seminary.
While it is true that much valuable Bible training is learned at a seminary, it is also true that there is also much misinformation that is taught which is not only not valuable, but also not biblical. One prominent minister who pastors a church in California went as far as to say that the first thing he did after seminary was to purposely forget about some of the things that they taught him at seminary. Unfortunately, some seminaries are allowing the world’s ideas to creep into their schools. Teachings like there is no literal hell, an unbeliever can be saved after death, the world really was not created in six literal days, it is ok to live the homosexual life style, on and on. These teachings are completely contrary to what the Bible teaches. If a person wants to go on to minister in a denominational church he has no choice but to learn these things. Without seminary training he will not be accepted into the denominational church as a pastor. So, to
become a "reputable" ordained minister one must be approved by men and what they teach whether it is biblical or not. This in itself is not biblical.
The Apostle Paul addressed this very problem with the Galatians church. Galatians 1v6-8, 10 "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the One Who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other then the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or God? Or am I trying to please men?" Of course the answer to that question is Paul was not! This is the biggest problem in the seminary today, teachers that teach a false doctrine to please men and to make the true gospel less offensive. Paul says those that do that will be eternally condemned. A true minister of Jesus Christ does not become a true and reputable minister because he graduated from a seminary.
Another objection is this: denominational churches believe that only a few are called to be ordained.
Where in the Bible does it say that only few people are to be ordained? It does not! There are examples in the Bible that certain people are ordained, such as deacons, elders, and bishops, but no where does it say that no one else should be. What does the word ordain mean any way? It means "to appoint". Those that are ordained are appointed to do a certain work of the Lord. The fact is, all Christians have been appointed by God to preach the gospel, with the gifts by which they have been gifted. 1 Peter 2v9 tells us, "The old priesthood is gone". God used a select group of people as His priests to carry out certain duties that He commanded. But now Jesus Christ is our High Priest [Hebrews 5v4-6]. We the people of God no longer have an earthly priest stand between us and God. Our High Priest is the Lord Jesus Christ. The pastor of a church today is not standing between God and His people. God’s people can now go directly to God through Jesus Christ. He
is the One that stands in for us. He is our Advocate, not a man.
While it is true that the pastor of a church has been given the responsibility of caring for the sheep, he is not more special in God’s sight than any other member. The only difference between himself and others is that he is more responsible in the caring of the sheep of his congregation. The true pastor realizes that he is the servant of all in his care, not to be served. The fact is, God has called each believer as His chosen people to do His work. 1 Peter 2v9 tells us, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." While the pastor is appointed, ordained to care for the sheep, the sheep have also been given responsibilities.
God has appointed every believer to preach the Gospel. Not all preach the Gospel in words. Some are gifted in music or in special physical helps. Some are gifted with working with youth, others with the elderly. But each person is ordained to present the Gospel to the unsaved world as he or she is gifted. When did this all happen? The Bible says it happened before the very foundation of the world. Ephesians 1v4-5, "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the one He loves."
The title of the message asks, "Should All Believers Be Ordained?" The answer to that is, all believers are ordained now, not by some "official credential". No, they are already ordained by God Himself. The Church Of Living Water does not provide ordination, they only provide physical visible credentials that help the believer in his ministry. God does the ordaining.
One final objection from the denominationalists: they object to instant ordination by email and ordination without the laying on of hands. In the past TCOLW did have a policy of almost instant ordination. We no longer do that. It was done because of my eagerness to empower believers in the spreading of the gospel. I never did ordain anyone unless they submitted a statement of their faith. I came to realize that some may have wanted to be ordained because of an ego thing. They wanted to be able to tell others that they were "ordained." It might have even caused some to become proud… I pray not.
Today a person must take a 17 lesson course, not to qualify them but to test their sincerity and to ground them in the basics of discipleship. We then hold individual ordination blessing services. We lay hands upon the credentials of each TCOLW Minister and ask God to bless them and their ministry. This we call ordination by proxy. We let the person’s credentials be a point of contact of our hands rather than the person himself. To my knowledge, we are the only Church on the web that does this. We are now asking all newly ordained minister to sign a statement of declaration stating that they are accepting their ordination in all seriousness, humbleness and in thanksgiving to God, and will adhere to the biblical beliefs of the TCOLW.
I cannot over emphasize the fact that all believers are already Ordained by God, that happened on the day they accepted the Lord as their Savior. Being ordained does not qualify anyone to be a church pastor, or a Bible teacher or any other thing. We are all gifted in different areas. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 tells us, "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."
God is the one that determines which gifts we have, not us. He says in verse 11, "All these {gifts} are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one as He determines." TCOLW does not Ordain anyone to become anything, we provide Ordination Credentials to Christian to empower them in their ministry to the world. Ordinations [appointments] are not to set anyone above anyone else. TCOLW issues Ordination Credentials to satisfy the world's requirements who want to see a piece of paper. We are qualified by God and not by any piece of paper.
Finally, the greatest gift that God gives to a Christian is the gift of love. There is no greater gift. Whether a person is a pastor, or teacher, elder, deacon or has any other gift, they all are to minister by the gift of love. To those who want to become pastors or teachers be mindful of one thing.....all gifts given to us by God are considered of equal importance to God. While none are given a greater blessing than another, some are held to a higher accountability. Be sure that your gift is what God gave you and not what you decided you wanted to have. As I said earlier, a Christian is ordained by God not by men.
Carry yourselves well before men so that you do nothing at all to shame the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Do what God has appointed you to do and nothing else. God will use you greatly in the work of spreading the Gospel no matter what gift you have in the body of Christ. Amen.
My Credentials:
