When the church is tempted to fashion new offices or to extend the functions of church office beyond the officers of the church, ordination provides something of a reset. Ordination presents to the church those men whom Christ has already placed into office inducting men whom Christ has called, through his church, into office.

Introduction

Many in the church know that ordination is important, but they may struggle to articulate why that is the case. Ordination is one of the hidden gems of the Bible’s teaching on the church and church office. To appreciate its significance, we need to understand what ordination is, where it is found in Scripture, and how God intends for ordination to help the church.

What Is Ordination?

First, what is ordination? The PCA’s Book of Church Order defines ordination as follows: “ordination is the authoritative admission of one duly called to an office in the Church of God, accompanied with prayer and the laying on of hands, to which it is proper to add the giving of the right hand of fellowship” (BCO 17-2).⁽¹⁾ Two elements of this definition merit attention. The first is that ordination is inextricably bound to church office. Only those who are “duly called to an office in the Church of God” are eligible for ordination. As John Owen notes, “ordination in Scripture compriseth the whole authoritative translation of a man from among the number of his brethren into the state of an officer in the church.”⁽²⁾ Thus, ordination is reserved for church officers, exclusively.

Second, ordination is the “authoritative admission” of one called to office. When a man is called by Christ to office in the church, James Bannerman observes, he has the “title to the possession of [that] office” but he does not yet have the “title to the exercise of [that] office.”⁽³⁾ The latter is “conferred through the regular and outward appointment of the Church.”⁽⁴⁾ In ordination, a man is “formally admitted to the office [to which he has been called], or invested with the right to discharge its functions.”⁽⁵⁾ Ordination, then, is not a superfluous ceremony. It is a solemn act by which the church, acting through its officers, formally admits a man into the office to which he has been called. Only when he is thus admitted to office does he have the right to exercise that office in the church.⁽⁶⁾

What Is the Biblical Basis for Ordination?

Presbyterians do not practice ordination because of human wisdom, tradition, antiquity, or superstition.⁽⁷⁾ They are persuaded that the ordination of men to church office has biblical warrant – “the Ordination of Presbyters with imposition of the hands of the Presbytery after Prayer and Fasting is a divine ordinance.”⁽⁸⁾ In the New Testament, we see examples of the ordination (and installation) of officers to the work to which Christ has called them. In Acts 6:6, the men whom the church in Jerusalem had elected to serve them as deacons were “set before the apostles,” who “prayed and laid their hands on them.” Later, in Acts 13:1-3, the Holy Spirit tells the “prophets and teachers” in “the church at Antioch” to “set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:1, 2). Then, “after fasting and praying,” the prophets and teachers “laid their hands” on Barnabas and Saul “and sent them off” (Acts 13:3).

In writing Timothy, Paul reminds this younger minister of his ordination, when “the council of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Tim 4:14), and when Paul himself laid hands on Timothy (2 Tim 1:5). Just as Timothy was ordained to the ministry by the “presbytery” (1 Tim 4:14, NASB 1995), so Timothy himself likewise joins with other elders to lay hands on men whom Christ has called to sacred office (see 1 Tim 5:22).⁽⁹⁾ Both Acts and the Epistles, then, prescribe ordination for the church in every age.

One constant in these passages that describe (and command) ordination is the laying on of hands. The laying on of hands, as Calvin observed, indicated that the “apostles … were offering to God him whom they were receiving into the ministry.”⁽¹⁰⁾ This act does not convey the gifts requisite for church office. On the contrary, in ordination the Church, acting through its officers, acknowledges the gifts of these men for office.⁽¹¹⁾

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