A High Bar: Developing a Process for Pastoral Ordination at Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina

Abstract

A HIGH BAR: DEVELOPING A PROCESS FOR PASTORAL ORDINATION AT HICKORY GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH IN CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

This project is aimed at creating a process for pastoral ordination at Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Chapter 1 provides the foundational context for Hickory Grove as well as the rationale and stated goals of the project. Chapter 2 provides biblical qualifications for pastors and discusses the church’s responsibility in selecting pastors that are above reproach in character. Chapter 3 addresses the issue of pastoral misappropriations by connecting it with the lack of observation within many Baptist church ordination processes. Chapter 4 provides the details of the project. Chapter 5 provides an evaluation of the project and its intended goals. Overall this project is intended to raise the cultural and conventional standard for pastors by providing a means in which a pastor’s character is observed through the formal process of ordination.