One of the qualifications for a pastor is that he rules his own house well, and has his children in hand (I Timothy 3:4).
Only way this *should* happen is if he is married or widowered. Otherwise, he’s a fornicator of some type, and not qualified for the ministry any more.
Really, it doesn’t get any simpler than that. It really doesn’t *matter* what “1500 years of church history” says about it - that is completely irrelevant. The Bible is what matters, not the erroneous practice of a lot of people who weren’t spiritually discerning.
1 Timothy Chapter 3 makes it clear that the leaders in the Church (Bishops, deacons) need to have been married and demonstrated their ability to be good leaders of their own household before they took a leadership position in one of God's households.
The comparisons in the article to Jesus and Paul, as not having wives is pretty misleading.
Jesus is the LORD Jesus Christ. The only Begotten Son of God. True, HE was the ultimate 'Pastor' (Head Shepard of the Flock of God) - but HE became man (God manifest in the flesh) for one expressed purpose: to redeem a people who were in bondage to Satan. And our LORD Jesus accomplished that in HIS Life and at Calvary. HE led the perfect life (HE alone was without sin and HE alone perfectly kept the Law of God), and HE went to the Cross to take the penalty for our sins. He crushed Satan's head, and defeated our last enemy - death.
Trying to equate our LORD Jesus Christ to a pastor in today's setting is nonsense. The pastors aren't here to bare our sins.
A: They can't (they aren't sinless).
B: This isn't needed. Our sins have been once and forever paid for on the Cross by our LORD Jesus Christ.
And Paul was an evangelist, more than a Pastor. Yes, he displayed great Pastoral advice in his letters (written through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost) - but look at his life. He was always on the move:
2 Corinthians 11:23b-27 ... in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Writing from prisons, visiting the various churches he had planted throughout the Roman world.
So, clearly he had great 'pastoral' love for the Flock of Christ, but he was never able to settle down to pastor one church. And given his life, marriage was out of the question. But note - it was Paul who wrote the aforementioned letter to Timothy stating that leaders in a Church needed to be married.
So I can understand Evangelists not being married (since they are always traveling) - but not so Pastors of a church.
The more I thought about this overnight, and my experience over the years with Church committees, I suspect just the desire of a married pastor lies differently.
I don't mean to suggest that keeping his own house in order isn't important.
But my experience with Church laity leadership, is they don't want a pastor that will run roughshod over the multi-decade laity leaders. They already have an established role in their church.
A pastor who has been married for several years, most likely has already learned to compromise and act as a team leader, not a dictator.