You're far from the only man of your position who has no formal education and yet pronounces himself a pastor by virtue of his untested Biblical knowledge. And like so many of your kind Steven Anderson comes to mind you have little concern for things like learning one of the original languages of the Bible or engaging in projects that would increase the depth of your understanding.
Knowledge is a good thing, even if you find it through a source that doesn't meet your personal standards for moral behaviour.
I've studied Christianity and the other Abrahamic faiths (most recently including the Qur'an) since I was old enough to choose my own books. I now have a library of them spanning from Spurgeon to Rushdoony (with his Dominionist trilogy, “The Institutes of Biblical Law”) to liberal theologians such as Karen Armstrong.
I also studied theology at university to the undergraduate level. I was admitted to graduate school but could not attend for personal reasons.
And I believe absolutely in the existence of the God of the Jews. The Bible I use for personal study is the KJV - that's the one with marked and flagged passages. I augment the reading of it with Young's Literal Translation, with the JPS TANAKH (for Jewish scriptures), and the English Standard Version among others. I have a thorough concordance (Strong's) and I know how to use it. Robert Alter's "Five Books of Moses" is among my favourite translations of those books.
The reason I'm telling you this, besides a belief my library, which includes hundreds of books on this subject (including academic reference materials the most significant and costly of anything I own by far), should always be of use, is because I've studied the requirements for a pastor...and I don't mean I merely looked them up online one day. I have devoted my life to the study of things like these.
Before I continue, I'll point out I don't pretend to be a pastor or any kind of unique authority figure at all. In fact, I owe a debt to God which I will be paying for a long, long time.
It is in service to God, and to my debt, that I'm even bothering to try talking to you.
I am here to warn you: You are doing it wrong boldly, proudly wrong.
Neither university nor bilingualism are necessary prerequisites for the pastorate. The Bible doesn't list them as such.
The Bible does list prerequisites, however; they're scattered throughout the books.
Isaiah 42 begins by listing some qualities of the Lord's Chosen Servant:
“A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” (3)
“To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” (7)
This is so important it appears again in Matthew 12:20. (If you haven't made a very careful study of this, I suggest you do.)
Rather than writing all the qualifications for your office, I'll link them here and highlight just a few.
A qualified pastor is humble. (You do remember who will inherit the Earth.)
A qualified pastor is gentle. This of course does not mean he is weak or tractable. It does mean, however, that he treats people with mercy as is meet for a man who believes it is solely by the mercy of God that he would find peace in the world to come. As the author of the linked piece points out, such a man is not quick-tempered.
Not surprisingly, a pastor must be peaceable insofar as it's possible. He must be hospitable and self-controlled. These qualities are not only good in themselves, but they lead to his ability to meet another qualification: He must be able to teach by example, in that he must be respectable. (1 Timothy 4:16 warns you to watch yourself.)
In addition to these special qualifications are the general ones those that lead to such an attitude that it's only natural for someone moved by empathy - that's not a cuss word - to feed someone who is hungry, to help find proper clothing for someone who is either naked to the point of immodesty or/and in danger of being harmed by the elements. Such a person would visit prisoners, not to condemn them or even necessarily to preach, but to listen and to teach; to encourage peaceful behaviour and self-control for those who've not had the advantage of close mentoring by someone who genuinely cares (and not just about trying to create a vain list of souls won').
There's more. There is so much more: At the centre of all judgment by God is whether the defendant was merciful in life, or cruel; whether the person stuck at least to her or his own chosen ethical code.
This doesn't mean you need to endorse any practice with which you disagree. It does mean, however, that you should conduct all your business with believers and non-believers fairly and - here's that word again with the same mercy you hope God will one day show you.
2 Peter 2:19 offers one of the best warnings on this topic anyone can give: “...for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”
Beyond the borders of the IFB churches are those of us...so many of us...who see a culture rife with cruelty, hypocrisy, and pastoral vanity. But of all their manifold sins, cruelty is the most obvious and the most rampant and it is the one God will absolutely nail you for. Beyond that are the lesser' problems of pastors with no training or oversight who have made their private interpretations into dogma and dare to mock those who disagree.
James Wilson, I have read more than enough of you to know your vanity, your earthly political kowtowing to a morally bankrupt ideology whose standard-bearers (e.g., the pundits on FOX) are known far and wide as utterly shameless liars, and your attempts to mock those who disagree with (or even overtly make fun of) you, along with the pride you seem to take in how much you don't know could all undo you.
As an aside, “with child” is an anachronism for “pregnant.” That is reason enough to change the wording in a newer translation without your having to blame some conspiracy related to abortion. Give your head a shake.
ETA: There's only one “reverend” mentioned in the Bible: God. Your proper title is pastor or elder, but not reverend.
