Keep in mind, we’ll never see these qualities perfected in anyone. But while not perfected, they should be evident, and will be in any man who’s called to ministry. My friend Jeff Purswell, the dean of the Sovereign Grace Ministries’ Pastors College, puts it simply: “God’s work in a man demonstrates God’s call of a man.”5 This also means that to appoint pastors with the hope that before too long they’ll somehow rise to Scripture’s eldership standards is both shortsighted and extremely dangerous. It’s like asking somebody to land a fighter jet because they’ve flown one in a video game. Men
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