1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 both list the qualities and qualifications for men who seek to be pastors/elders in the church. All of the items included in these lists are important in considering whether a man should be ordained as an elder, because those men that God has called, He has also qualified.

One important quality that does not appear on these lists, yet is just as essential for a pastor or elder, is found in 1 Peter 5:5.

“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

In this passage, the Apostle Peter admonishes all pastors and elders to be submissive to each other in humility.

No matter how qualified one may be otherwise, the absence of humility will cause his ministry to be completely ineffective.

Earlier in 1 Peter 5, the apostle calls pastors and elders to “shepherd the flock…being examples to them.”  If the leadership of the church cannot live and minister with the right attitude about themselves, how can the congregation be expected to follow them in submission and humility?

How true it is that we cannot lead others unless we “practice what we preach.”