The ordaining, commissioning or licensing of clergy is a constitutionally protected religious freedom that is guaranteed under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. For our purposes, we'll simply refer to is as ministry ordination. The Bible does not necessarily direct or support a specific form of ordination, as far as I know. Which means that churches are largely free to determine who may be ordained, commissioned or licensed, and how.

Have you ever read the terms “ordained, commissioned or licensed” in the scriptures? I think not. Those are terms that modern churches and the IRS have attached to clergy. Some church denominations use the terms to distinguish among the different levels of ecclesiastical qualification, authority and responsibility that they have established. They do so by issuing a different credential to clergy at each level. But that is not necessary for ministry ordination purposes of any church.

The IRS, considers those three terms synonymously. Whether a minister is ordained, commissioned or licensed, the IRS’ primary concern is that they satisfy the federal test for who is a “minister.” Therefore, the decision to employ more than one of those terms and designate different levels of qualification, authority or responsibility to each is entirely a matter for the church.

No church will err by choosing to license rather than ordain, to ordain rather than commission, to commission rather than license, or to ordain, commission and license. In appointing clergy, all churches should use at least one of these terms to refer to the process of setting men and women apart for the ministry. This is the essence of ministry ordination in American churches today.

If you are starting a church, or you've been called to help in starting a church where someone else will become ordained, this is something you must understand quite intimately. There is an amazing church-starting resource that is the gold standard in use by hundreds of churches throughout America.

It's written by Abe Hernandez, Esq., a devoted Christian and church law expert. It's called Building On Faith: Everything You Need To Know About Starting Your Own Church. You owe it to yourself and your ministry to check it out today.