Welcome back to the podcast. This week we're talking about pastoral ministry.

Can single men pastor us today? Or must pastors be married? And then how much should pastors

make? That's up next time. So Pastor John, we know that many professing Christians around the

world claim that church leaders must be single men who have taken a vow of clerical celibacy.

We of course disagree with that. And for Protestants like us, pastors are typically married men,

typically married men. So we face a question in the opposite direction. And it's a question

recently asked by two different listeners. First, Josiah, Pastor John, thank you for sharing

your insight with us week after week on this podcast. Do you believe a first requirement for

other ship is that he have a wife and kids? And then Josiah sites 1st and 3 verses 2 to 4

and Titus 1 6 and Blake, another listener, likewise asks, if a single non-married man is eligible

to be a church elder, what would you say to Josiah in Blake? Whether a single man is permitted

biblically to be an elder or pastor boils down to whether two passages, one in 1st Timothy 3,

the other in Titus 1, mandate that elders must be married. If they do, that settles the matter

we obey. If they don't, then we have to ask whether there are other passages or other pointers or

principles that would suggest it's permitted or wise or unwise to have pastors who are not married.

So here are those two most immediately relevant texts. 1st Timothy 3 verse 4, he must manage his

own household well. So he's given qualifications for the overseers. He must manage his own household

well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive for if someone does not know how to

manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? And then the other one is Titus

chapter 1 verse 5, this is why I left you in Crete so that you might put what remained in order

and appoint elders in every town as I directed you if anyone is above reproach the husband of one

wife. A couple of observations are I think especially relevant first. Paul does not say here

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