1 Timothy 3:6-7 (Church leadership overseer 2 of 2)

You know what there is never a replacement for? Experience. I have seen it time and time again in my life, you have an individual who is highly educated in a career, but they have no practical experience. They have all the book knowledge you could ask for, but they have never been in a situation where they have had to apply it. You put them up against someone who has never graced the doors of a college but has done a task for years and they will make the person without experience look like a fool. They can tell you how to fix things engineers and electricians cannot figure out because they have experience. I know this is true in the mining industry and I am sure it is in other industries as well, there is no replacement for experience. Paul says this is true in ministry as well, when in verse 6 he says that if someone wants to be in church leadership that they can be a recent convert (or novice), they must be well established in their faith.

This makes perfect since to me but for some reason it is a reoccurring problem within the modern church. Church leaders put people in positions of leadership and authority before they are ready, and it comes back to bite them in the end. Someone gets saved and starts coming to church, they want to get involved at the church and before you know it, they are teaching Sunday School, leading the children’s ministry, or leading something else. I believe leaders do this because they are so stressed and just want help, but they don’t realize allowing someone to lead before there are ready can cause more trouble than stress relief. Paul is speaking on the level of an overseer, but it can be applied all the way down line of church leadership. People must have been allowed to experience life with God, grow in their relationship with God, and grow in their knowledge of who God is and what He wants from them before they can lead in the church.