Pastors Divorced- Are they disqualified?

[Sherryh]

I've been divorced. My former wife left me for another man. At the time.... the guy was one of my best friends. A member in my church. I didn't remarry for more than 10 years. My new fiance at the time had a friend that was a pastor of a local church and see really liked him. She asked him to "marry" us and he refused. No questions. No explanations except to say he didn't want it to hurt his "reputation".

I told my wife some years later that this one thing we have in common with homosexual and lesbians..... if hard core fundamentalist had their way...... we couldn't have gotten married just like your common homosexual "partners".

I've personally known good men that left the ministry because their wife left them. I've personally known good men that never remarried because their wife left them. Such a waste over man made doctrine. I have a cousin that is one of the best men I know. He will never remarry because he considers himself a preacher. What a waste.

I've asked several men this and never gotten a response from any of them....

If we believe I Cor 7:15 is true...... then why do we create "bondage" for those who have suffered abandonment associated with divorce?

1Co 7:15  But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases:

How does one reconcile 1 Cor 7:15 with 1 Tim 3:2? Certainly..... one complements the other.....

You never know who is typing behind the computer..........I'm sorry your wife left you that has to hurt beyond words. I hope you're a better person and not bitter over your experience. I wish the best for you!!!

 

[groupie]

The word divorce would have been used if that was what was intended. God is not the author of confusion - that is man's job! LOL

I know a man living in a foreign county that had 2 wives when he got saved. In his culture, multiple wives is accepted and encouraged. He has grown in his faith and is very Godly man and his wives are as well. Yes, I said it - WIVES - he is still married to both of them. Should he have divorced the 2nd one, chose one to abandoned or stay married to both? Divorce is preached against too. He is not the pastor of the church he attends, but he does preach often as he is a ministry leader. The missionary that introduced the man to Christ spent h̶o̶u̶r̶s̶ ̶....no w̶e̶e̶k̶s̶ ̶....actually months fretting over what to do. What a waste of the missionary's time!

There is a long list of qualifications for a pastor that no man could ever meet. What it is saying that a man must be striving toward holiness to be qualified to be a pastor or deacon. His lifestyle should be such, not singular events of failures which everyone of us have.

 

[Castor Muscular]

If a man gets saved, who is divorced, and afterwards proves to be blameless, and meets all the requirements...he is a new creature, hello.
  If a woman leaves a man, after he gets saved, because she doesn't believe, and doesn't want to follow, so be it, we don't judge him by that.
  If a man is pastoring, and gets divorced, he sould resign, and find a new occupation.  He doesn't possess the leadership/steadfastness to oversee the family of God. 
  Problems arise, when novices that have no children, or have only been married a short time, desire the office reserved for the mature.

Anishinabe

But then what if he crosses the International dateline...

 

[4everfsu]

The answer to the question is no. Way I read the qualifications of a bishop.

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

The answer to the question is no. Way I read the qualifications of a bishop.

You can take the boy away from RLS but you can't take the RLS completely out of the boy! 

 

[Castor Muscular]

The stupidest opinion I read related to this was by A. W. Tozer.  He was actually addressing the question of whether a divorced person may remarry.  To paraphrase, he said, you can't remarry just because you're forgiven the sin of divorce.  If you're in jail for murder, they don't let you out just because you've been forgiven by God.  You still have to fulfill man's laws.

Okay, but if you got a civil divorce, then you HAVE fulfilled man's laws. And by man's laws, you may remarry.  So the analogy makes no sense.

 

[IFB X-Files]

1.  A divorced man has no wife.
2.  A divorced man who marries again has only one wife.  Everyone knows this.  The man knows it.  His wife knows it.  The IRS knows it.  The courts know it.  All his friends know it.  The only ones who don't know it are usually Baptists.
3.  A man can be whore mongerer, have sex with 200 women and produce 30 bastard children from that.  Then get saved and called to preach and everyone will rejoice at his testimony.
4.  God says the joining of flesh to flesh becomes one.  Fornication and adultery are the only sins against your own body.  Yet no one would refuse a saved man to pastor if he had "joined flesh" 100 times before he was saved.  Why do we not only ordain virgins or at least those who have only had sex with their first wife?  In so many ways we are hypocrites.