Titus: Requirements for Church Leaders

Paul mentors Titus in how to set up a successful church. First of all, a church needs leaders. There must be an authority structure, a first among equals, a team of decision-makers, leaders. Paul notes that the churches on Crete that lacked leaders were "unfinished" and that the situation needed to be "straightened out". But the authority structure God has in mind for the church is not some random guy getting to call all the shots, do anything he wants, and control people's lives. The standards for church leaders are very high, since they are entrusted with God's work and God's people.
The church leader must have children who follow Jesus and "are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient". This means that leaders do not have the right to hide their family life from the church--leaders must be holding each other accountable and be in each others' lives to prevent them from putting up a nice mask and pressuring their children into performing for the church so no one will think badly of them. When believers become church leaders, they present themselves as the responsible party of their family, as it were, and Paul tells Titus that if these men have crazy, disobedient, unbelieving kids, there must be something wrong with the way they led their families so they shouldn't be put in charge of the church.
The church leader must not be overbearing. He can't pressure people into doing what he wants; he can't force decisions on people; he can't be dictatorial and tyrannical. Instead, he must be hospitable, inviting input and conversation from others in the church. He must be humble, welcoming, gentle, and doing everything out of love for Christ and His church rather than for "dishonest gain". Church leadership is not a one-way line of communication. Leaders make decisions and parishioners submit to those decisions, certainly. But leaders must be hospitable and accountable to their parishioners, welcoming different opinions, personalities, critiques, and suggestions. Church leadership that is a dictatorship is not Biblical.
The church leader must hold firmly to the gospel, for the gospel is the foundation of his whole job as a leader: encouraging others by sound doctrine and refuting those who oppose the message. Specifically, he must hold firmly to the message as it has been taught (e.g., by Jesus), not as he feels it should be or as others want it to be. The leader must not cater to the whims of human desires, whether his own or others'. If he doesn't agree with the gospel as it has been taught, then he ought not be a leader in the church. If other people don't like hearing the gospel as it has been taught, he has a responsibility to them to continue preaching the truth. The leader must not change the message in order to be more popular, or culturally relevant, or seeker sensitive. God has entrusted the church leader with His message and His people, and it is a weighty responsibility. Those who teach and lead God's people will be judged against higher standards (cf. James 3:1), and that is not something to take lightly.

Titus: Outline and Introduction

Titus is basically Paul's letter explaining how Timothy should preach and lead a church. The basic outline of the book is as follows:

Introduction - 1:1-4
Requirements for church leaders - 1:5-9
Warning about people Titus should watch out for - 1:10-16
How to teach to any demographic - 2:1-15
Older men - 2:1-2
Older women - 2:3
Younger women - 2:4-5
Younger men - 2:6-8
Slaves - 2:9-10
Basic message of any teaching - 2:11-15
What to teach everyone - 3:1-8
What to avoid and tell others to avoid - 3:9-11
Personal business - 3:12-15

In the Introduction, Paul explains his life purpose. He is an apostle of Jesus and a servant of God so that God's people would, through faith, understand the truth. His goal is for people to know truth. The result of people knowing this truth is that they become godly--knowledge of the truth leads to, or is in accord with, godliness. Paul sees it as a natural progression, not a two-step process or unrelated goals. Once believers know the truth about God and Jesus and themselves, a changed heart and a changed life flow naturally from that knowledge.
The faith and knowledge both have the same foundation: hope of eternal life. God promised eternal life "before the beginning of time", and all throughout the Old Testament the Jews' faith and knowledge of the truth rested on this hope. But Paul points out that, for us, this hope is no longer some distant idea hovering somewhere in the future like a desert mirage. Rather, our hope is certain and our faith is sure, because God "manifested [eternal life] in his word". This is somewhat of a double entendre: the Word is John's name for Jesus, God's human manifestation of eternal life; Paul also refers to the word of his (Paul's) preaching about Jesus. Bottom line: our hope is secure because we have seen and heard the manifestation, the very essence, of eternal life, that is, the life and work of Jesus.
Paul points out that God's word, Jesus/the gospel, is manifested by preaching. The job of preaching God's word is not to be treated flippantly; Paul says God has entrusted him with this task and commanded him to carry it out. The preaching is in itself a manifestation of eternal life: it is both the call to and the living out of the abundant, infinite, Kingdom life to which God is calling His people.
Paul then turns to Titus, addressing him as his true child by virtue of their common faith. Paul reminds Titus of his spiritual heritage and calls him to follow in Paul's mission, which was just stated in the previous verses. We would do well to be reminded of this as Titus was. We too have been called to preach the message of eternal life through Jesus. Let us not take our job lightly or lose sight of the goal: that God's people, through faith, will have knowledge of the truth and they will live godly lives as a result.