Perhaps depending on how you feel about things in your church right now, the above title either turns the corners of your mouth up in a smile or your eyebrows up because of a frown! However, neither response really fits the situation because, as far as I know, this church will not be looking for a pastor in the near future.
But the topic does stem from a real need. Over the past year many dear friends of Elim Baptist Church have moved to new locations where they have needed to find a church home. In almost every case these dear ones have called or e-mailed or written asking for help in finding a new place to worship and fellowship. And, in each case, they have asked for help in discerning the role of the pastor as it relates to them, the church, and what God’s Word teaches.
Now, I am not sure this pastor (or any pastor for that matter!) can be completely objective in answering this need. On the other hand, I am also not so sure that a pastor ought to be objective on this issue. After all, God has spelled out certain things about the office of pastor in His Word, and it seems certain that the best answer to “what kind of pastor?” should be based subjectively on what God has declared! This fact can and should be applied to any area of pastoral ministry. And it is particularly well illustrated as we consider a person’s “call” to be a pastor.
Curtis Thomas, a faithful pastor for 44 years, makes good use of God’s subjective truths regarding a pastor’s call when he writes the following:
“Let’s look for a moment at the Scriptures. First Timothy 3:1 says that the elder (pastor) must desire or reach out for the office. First Timothy 5:22 says that we must ‘not be hasty in the laying on of hands,’ meaning that we should be careful about whom we recognize as candidates for the ministry. First Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, and 1 Peter 5:1-4 teach us that to fill the office, the person must be qualified by certain moral characteristics. In the 1 Peter passage the person must be an example to the flock. First Timothy 4:9-16 tells us that the pastor’s ‘life and doctrine’ must be sound. That would require that the church make an assessment of the men who reach out for the office. And First Timothy 5:17-21 gives us instructions on to how to correct an elder who sins and, by implication, does not measure up to the office.
“So, to summarize: The biblical concept of a ‘call to the ministry’ does not include a vision, special revelation, or mystical experience. Rather, it involves factors such as: (1) Does the man reach out for the work? (2) Is he qualified biblically? (3) Does he possess the gifts necessary to fulfill the functions? (4) Do the elders and the church think he is gifted and morally qualified? (5) Are his life and doctrine sound? (6) Will he live is an example before the flock?”
Now, I am not forgetting that in the Old Testament and at the beginning of the church, God did audibly and directly call some men to ministry. (After all, Paul’s experience on the Damascus road was pretty remarkable!) But we are privileged to live at a time when the New Testament has completed God’s revelation, and we know it as our reliable guide. Therefore, any biblical local church should he able to take God’s Word and help a man assess whether or not God designs to use him in the gospel ministry.
While we are on the subject of God’s Word and its subjective requirements relating to ministry, there is an area of pastoral concern that is often overlooked. When reading through the Bible, it becomes apparent that the New Testament pattern for church government is that pluralities of God-ordained men — the pastors, overseers, or elders — are responsible for church leadership. It is interesting to note that every place in the New Testament where the term “elders” is used, it is plural, except where the apostle John uses it of himself in 2 and 3 John, and where Peter uses it of himself in 1 Peter 5:1.
This desire for a plurality of leaders is seen in the actions of those who first spread the gospel. In Acts 14:23 we read, “When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” (emphasis added) Certainly this tells us that the beginning of the church in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch began this way, and it strongly implies that the norm in the New Testament church was a plurality of elders.
There are several benefits to the local church when its leadership is made up of a plurality of godly men (see Proverbs 11:14; 15:22). Their combined counsel and wisdom helps assure that decisions are not based on the whims (or sins!) of a single individual. In fact, one-man leadership is characteristic of cults, not of the church.
Along with the teaching of multiple pastors being given to each church for their care, the New Testament uses several different terms relating to this responsibility assigned by Christ. In our church, people are most familiar (and, I would imagine, comfortable) with the term “pastor.” However, the words “elder” (as above), “overseer” (older translations used “bishop”) and “shepherd” (taken from “pastor”) are all used interchangeably of the same person/role. The simplest (and most probable) explanation for all of this is that “elder” refers mainly to recognized maturity, “overseer” to the responsibilities within the church, and “pastor” refers primarily to the function or the means by which the man carries forth his work. Some have said that the name elder emphasizes what the man is, while overseer and pastor emphasizes what the man does. A biblical example of this is found in Acts 20:28 where Paul instructs the “elders” gathered from Ephesus, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
Graciously, the Lord has provided for His church in a variety of ways in giving her the pastor/elder/overseer. In fact, the only offices the Lord describes in His Word are those of the pastor and deacon. There is no biblical correlation to present church offices such as board members, trustees or even Sunday school teachers! The church has created these positions in order to meet certain needs along the way. As such, they need to come under the authority and “rule” of the biblical offices of pastors and deacons. And the pastors and deacons have a responsibility to oversee such things wisely.
But that brings us back to the original question, doesn’t it? How do we know when a man is the right “kind” of pastor? How can we tell if he will do what is best for those who comprise the church? As stated earlier, the only way we can truly know these is if we hold up the subjective standards of God’s Word and examine a man in light of them. In addition to the qualifications it lists for a pastor or elder, the Bible also gives six key responsibilities to the man who serves the church of Christ. These are not items given “in addition” to his responsibility to lead the church, but rather they describe how he is to lead.
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Preach the Word
This leads the list not because it is the most visible job a pastor undertakes, nor because it is what he is paid to do! Rather, this essential function encompasses every aspect of what the church needs and what God has made His pastors to be! As the shepherd he must feed the flock that which will nourish and strengthen it. In his capacity as an elder the maturity and dignity in spiritual things that only God’s Word can provide are absolute musts. And the overseer cannot make decisions based upon his own wisdom, but rather must employ that which is gleaned as he obeys the command to “preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2)
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Pray for the flock
It was the original twelve apostles who set this standard early in the history of the church. Their response to a problem in the church was to appoint others to handle the situation (some say the appointees were the first deacons!). The apostles were to be devoted “to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4) Biblical pastors pray for the people God has entrusted to them! The man who says he is “too busy” for such work is not doing God’s work; it is that simple! John Owen said it well; “He that is more frequent in his pulpit to his people that he is in his closet for his people is but a sorry watchman.”
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Pursue and Pattern righteousness
Again, the standard of God’s Word is crystal clear when it tells the man of God to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.” (1 Timothy 6:11) Timothy and Titus are both encouraged as examples to the church in these areas. Frankly, this portion of pastoral ministry is rarely discussed and, when it is talked about at all, it is considered in terms of its “unfairness.” But the Word is firm: God’s ministers are to be pursing godliness and serving as a pattern in it for the people of God.
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Protect the flock
Earlier I quoted from Acts 20:28 regarding the connection between overseers and shepherds. That same text goes on to discuss how false teaches will seek to ravage the church — and it is the job of the pastor to protect her! The New Testament is filled with such instructions to silence the mouths of those who would teach false doctrine (see Titus 1:11 for example), and the job falls to the faithful elders. They accomplish the task by faithfully, diligently teaching the true and identifying the false for what it is.
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Pour himself into men
If you have been reading carefully, you have noticed that references to pastors or elders have all been specifically male. That is on purpose. The Word of God makes no allowances for women to serve as pastors, elders or overseers. They have enough to do in the areas to which God has assigned them! But this article is not about that needless debate, but rather what biblical pastors should do. And 2 Timothy 2:2 makes it a must for pastors to be men who pour themselves, their lives, and their teaching into other men who will pass those things along.
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Presence among the flock
While these six key responsibilities have not been given in any particular order (except for the priority of the first one), this final element is often uppermost in the minds of people. 1 Peter 5:2 instructs the pastor to “shepherd the flock of God among you.” There is much that could be said about the flock not being “under” the pastor (or “over” for that matter!), but I find it thought provoking that Peter assumed the pastor would be among his people. Obviously a man cannot be in any more than one place at a time, but it should be normal for those in the church to know the pastor’s company and to understand that he is glad to be with them. He is still the shepherd and that makes some differences; but then again, sheep and shepherds are supposed to go together!
Posted on August 8th, 2007 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: Pastor's Occasional Papers
