Do you think that an 11 year old boy should be ordained? I am not asking because I am flirting with the idea. To be honest the thought had never occurred to me, and would have likely stayed off my radar if it wasn’t for this article. I guess someone, in careful examination and faithful application of the scripture, felt not only that they can, but that they should ordain an 11 year old boy. With a decision this unconventional it might be a good idea to go and examine the scriptures they were looking at when they made their decision to ordain this boy.
1 Tim 3:1-7 1
The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach,
the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
If you are looking to ordain a leader in the church you are ultimately going to end up in 1 Timothy. This is where you will find the qualifications Paul set in place for a church overseer. If you read the scripture above you will note some sections have been crossed out. I can only assume that the leaders in this particular church either did the same thing to their bible, or they have simply chosen to understand/interpret it differently.
I know there are churches out there that do not put a lot a stock in the marriage and family aspects of the qualifications. I have no idea why they ignore these attributes, but I believe they do so to their own detriment. However, for the sake of time I will leave that conversation for another day. If they did happen to ignore the marriage and family requirements simply because of his age – it’s illegal for a 11 year old to get married – they would still be left with the glaring issue in verse 6. I do not care how long this boy has been a believer there is no getting around his maturity. I can just imagine the trouble I would have gotten into, and the pride that would have overtook me if I was in that position at age 11.
Please understand I have no problem with young people serving and ministering in the church. What better training and proving ground for potential ministers than the local assembly? As leaders we should make room and create opportunities for young people to minister and serve. In the case of this young boy, I believe there are definitely ares of service he could be placed in. Areas where he could track with and learn from mature christians as they served together. And in the process of time his faithfulness, competence, and maturity would be made evident to all. This would seem to be the approach that is most faithful to scripture, and the thing that would best help this young man as he walks with God.