Biblical Proof for the Office and Ministry of Pastor

I. The Office of Pastor is Biblical.
II. The pastor has the spiritual watch care and responsibility over our souls.
III. Biblical Terms for Pastor
IV. The Ministry of Pastoring is to Govern, to Supervise.
  Who's the Boss?
  The Pastor is the Executive of the Local Church
 

Introduction - In our modern world there are Christians which have had very bad experiences at the hands of false prophets and have taken extreme and unbiblical positions, have entered into immoral or unbiblical conduct, and are pushing unbiblical concepts because of their bad experiences. The office and ministry of pastor has entered into an area where a great many churches and Christians are questioning if having a pastor is good. This study will help resolve this issue for those who are obedient to the Word of God.

I. The Office of Pastor is Biblical.

God has established the ministry of pastor. We need to understand that God has a clear plan, and if we study the Bible and obey what God reveals to us, we will walk in the way of the Lord. To refuse to obey God is simply to destroy our Christian faith, and ruin our lives both now and afterwards.

Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

This passage says that God gave the gift of pastor to the local church so that this ministry can edify the body of Christ. Occurring just one clear time is sufficient to establish the concept, and make opposition to it very difficult. If we go to the root meanings of these words, an apostle is one sent on a mission (missionary), a prophet is one who rebukes sin (modern evangelist), a biblical evangelist is one who goes to where the unsaved are and presents the plan of salvation and then brings them into a good local church, and a teacher is one who explains the Word of God, often associated or linked with the ministry of pastor.

The office of pastor is one who presides, officiates, and leads spiritually the local church.

Hebrews 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

"rule" egeomai (2233) to lead, go before, be a leader, rule, command, to have authority over, overseeing.

There is a God appointed person in charge over the local church to oversee the activities, work, and doctrine of the local church. We have a God ordered obligation to submit ourselves to that person because he is God appointed to watch over us.

The first thing we must understand is that God's way of leading is different from the world's way (and thinking) on leadership. Leadership for the world is getting other people to benefit you. In God's way of thinking, leadership means love, the leader sacrifices luxury, ease, and benefit in order to service and help others. This is drastically different and opposed one to the other.

Secondly we need to understand that worldly leadership manipulates things such that they hide the excesses and hypocrisies of their own lifestyle presenting themselves as leaders, when in reality they are wolves seeking to take great benefit from the organization they are over. The Bible refers to these types as false prophets, wolves in sheep clothing.

Thirdly we need to understand that there is a very important dynamic between leader and standards pushed by the group. In other words, a biblical leader lives what he preaches. A biblical leader is a shining example of what all Christians have to be. As a biblical leader, he cannot simply order people around like in the military or in a company that he owns. God does not give people in the ministry (any level, any type) this kind of authority.

The authority that God gives a man of God is one in which he exhorts and lives the standards of God. This means that biblical leaders need (1) a pulpit from which to preach the standard, and (2) a visible life to give living testimony to that standard. Without these two things, no man is a legitimate Christian leader. The pulpit from which he preaches the standard is how he is to disseminate the truth of God. This may be a church pulpit, a Sunday School classroom, a writing ministry, etc. But the point is that he stands for something (the standard of God) which he promotes by his ministry. The second element of Biblical leadership is that of a living testimony. He is an example. No leader is a good leader if he does not live what he pretends to promote as the correct standard that he lives by.

Another important point here is that God has so constructed God's system that it is perfect and self-protecting. God has established only local churches, and no denominational structures (men in a distant place are over a local church) as modern Christianity wants to always go use. The point is that you cannot judge the spirituality of a leader if he only comes to visit. You must live with him, seeing he and his family, his personal life, day by day. This gives power to his preaching, or makes him to be a hypocrite.

INCORRECT ATTITUDE: We should not look at the men over us, only at Christ.

We should not get discouraged by the frailties and failures of the men in the ministry, but that is not to say we should not observe their life and follow in their footsteps.

One of the common words for pastor is "bishop" which means overseer, someone who takes care of another person (or people) by watching over them. This word in Greek is episkope (1984) which comes from the word for investigation, inspection, visitation (to supply what is wanting). The idea includes a watchman or guard that watches to protect, as well as guarding a specific point (like a gate) so that the enemy will not enter. The concept is that the pastor watches over us.

But there is a bilateral "watching" going on between pastor and sheep. God commands us to examine the lives of our spiritual leaders and to be like they are (Hebrews 13:7,17 quoted above). This element is so often missed in local churches. Our pastor is to be an example of what a successful Christian should be. He is a living example so that nobody can claim that it is impossible, therefore we can accept something less that the standards of God. As you read these verses, remember that it is possible to be an exemplary Christian, and only these people are valid leaders of God's people.

1 Cor 4:16 "Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me"
1 Cor 11:1 "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ"
Eph 5:1 "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children"
Phil 3:17 "Brethren be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example"
1 Thess 1:6 "And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord"
1 Thess 2:14 "For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus"
2 Thess 3:9 "Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us."
Titus 2:7 "In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works"
Hebrews 6:12 "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."
3 John 1:11 "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God."

Hebrews 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. 17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

II. The pastor has the spiritual watch care and responsibility over our souls.

God has placed the pastor in a position of authority and responsibility over the flock of God. This is difficult to not accept if you see the verses. Here in 1 Timothy 3, the parallel is this. God requires that pastors rule well their own families, because if they cannot do this well on the smaller scale of their own family, then how can they then rule the church?

The concept of the word RA'AH in Hebrew, which means to pastor, has the concept of having authority over the flock. The pastor of a flock of animals has the responsibility and authority to take the sheep where he deems best. But although he has some liberty here, notice that rarely is the shepherd the owner of the sheep. He is a servant of the owner, and the owner has a higher authority than the shepherd, even though the owner mostly will give over the daily decisions to the shepherd.

Hebrews 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. 17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

We need to recognize that our generation is simply perverted to an extreme. We are the generation of "have it your way". We do not want to submit, we want to be rebellious and do things our way. These verses hit home at the spiritual error and the heart's rottenness in not wanting to submit to anybody. We tolerate God, but don't really take great joy in submitting to Him.

The first thing about these two verses is that God definitely commands us to submit to others in the ministry. The concept that we are all equals, therefore I do anything I want to do but will not be submissive to anybody is simply rebellion and not what God orders. We are definitely to submit ourselves to others in the ministry, but to men of God that have marked their lives as being addicted to serving the saints, people who help move the gospel out into all the world, and spiritually labor. (Lazy ministers do not comply with these requirements, and you should get out from any church where the pastor does not seem servant like, helpful, or a hard worker.

We need to make some conclusions at this point:

(1) God has placed a man over the local group of believers (the local church) which is called a pastor, bishop (overseer), or elder (wisely older and more experienced).
(2) We have a moral command from God to obey this person, to submit to our pastor.
(3) The pastor will one day have to answer to God for the spiritual life of each of the sheep under his care.
(4) The pastor will defend himself and his actions before God complaining of our rebelliousness if we do not follow his leadership.

Here we see a very clear mandate for church membership. In other words, to clarify who is under the pastor's watch care, every church should have a membership list which defines who is, and who is not under that church's oversight. Moreover this being the case, it is wisest on the member's part to inform the pastor of their problems and when they will miss or why they cannot fulfill any normal member responsibilities. It is the church member's responsibility to make possible or easy the pastor's oversight of the member's life.

This pastoral ministry of oversight and watch care is biblical. The very words "pastor" and "bishop" mean watch care and oversight. This concept is established in the OT with the pastors of Israel watching over them.

III. Biblical Terms for Pastor

If we examine 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, we find a certain interchanging of terms for this office and ministry. In a real sense, all three biblical terms refer to the same person. There are shades of meaning of different between them though.

"Elder" - Someone who is older and more experienced, and therefore wiser, and because of his wisdom is treated with respect and honor by the rest.

"Pastor" - A spiritual gift of taking care of the spiritual needs of others.

"Bishop" - An official position of supervision over the local church.

In ancient Israel, the elders were a class of people who were "natural leaders", leaders because of their proven wisdom and discernment of situations, good and bad, and their ability to know what is beneficial and detrimental through a proven course of making right and good decisions, and avoiding poor and improper decisions.

To be technically correct, the term "pastor" refers to a spiritual gift or ability of spiritually caring for other people. Actually we should not use the noun "pastor". The concept is verbal, to pastor, to do something. Equally interesting is that the Bible reveals the actual name of no pastor of any NT church. Only Jesus is identified as the chief pastor (John 10:11, 1 Peter 5:4). The term "bishop" is technically the position of the pastor in a local church. The idea of an "elder" is a wise person who is a leader because of his wisdom and experience. Therefore, a man can be a pastor or elder without necessarily having a church. But nobody can ever be a bishop without having it linked to a specific church. Elder is more a quality of wisdom than a talent to exercise. There may be a number of elders in any given local church, some recognized as elders, while others probably are, but are not recognized as such. All pastors must be elders, but not all elders are necessarily pastors. Only one elder pastor can be the bishop. There can be no plurality of bishops, but very often there is a plurality of elders and pastors. Think bishop, and think the buck stops here. Think pastor, and think activity of preaching, teaching, counseling, etc. Think elder and think older, experienced, worn out. (Okay the last was a joke, but probably true anyway.) Let's look at this in Titus 1.

Here Paul is telling Titus to establish (ordain) elders in each church. This would be an official recognition of their spiritual wisdom. Then he shifts gears and says that these requirements (for elder) are necessary because the "bishop" must be... Paul flows from one concept to the other as if the terms are interchangeable.

Here Peter uses the terms "elder", "oversight", and "feeding" (literally pastoring), and the "chief Shepherd". What we should well note here is that Peter's exhortation is to the spiritual leaders among them, the elders. The elders have the spiritual duty or obligation to "feed the flock of God which is among you". This means that elders should volunteer for this duty. It is up to them, not the rest of the church. Their duty is to "feed", or pastor. Here we can discern and conclude that "elder" is a description of a person, "pastor" is an activity that he does, and oversight is a thing which one takes on to himself, a duty or responsibility, like an official position within the church.

Here we note that Paul started off by calling together all the elders in the church. These are the leaders and the potential leaders (those capable but not necessarily in any leadership position at the moment). Paul's declaration is clear that Paul communicated the message of God without holding back, without distorting it, and without adding to it. This is the mission that Paul is enjoining them to accept. Here we see that Paul says they are overseers (probably many in one single church, but possibly many churches in Ephesus referred to as "the church"). Here there is a plurality of oversight offices even though I still believe that only one should be the leader, or head pastor. The terms "elder", and now "overseers" are both used for the same people, and then Paul mentions "to feed" (to pastor) the church of God. Here the verb or action of pastoring is in view.

Let me take a moment to further comment on Paul's warning of grievous wolves. These people are going to take advantage of the flock, and "spoil" them. That is that they will use their position of authority and oversight as overseers to benefit themselves first and foremost and leave the flock hurting. These will be experts are drawing away disciples after themselves. The man of God is not an expert at drawing people after himself, but after Christ. Many don't want this, so they become people followers, or worshippers of messengers (angels) as Paul warns us against in Colossians 2:18.

The last passage (v33-35) I have included because Paul used his own personal testimony as a teaching point. Paul did not benefit economically from his position of ministry among these Ephesians. Comparing this with 1 Cor 9, we understand that Paul probably did receive offerings or a just amount from them, but they (the local church) had to force him to take any money he received from them. Paul was not out fishing for what he could get economically. Perhaps the most telling character trait of a wolf is his desire and control over the finances of the local church. The fact that he "lives" by his ministry. This is essentially Paul's position in 1 Corinthians 9.

Some people want to take this as meaning that ministers should not receive compensation from those they minister to for their spiritual laborers, but that they should work a secular job and work fulltime in the ministry. I do not know how that works, because it doesn't. But the clear meaning here is that God has ordained the minister to be financially supported by those whom he ministers to. These are the people who should undertake his financial support.

But on the other hand, Paul's words also show a great preoccupation by Paul to not be the type of minister that gets "well paid" or has his eye on the money. He was probably poorly paid, but justly paid. One gets the idea that ministers just should not make a great deal of money. It should be a low paying job, no matter how well off the church is or not. The type of person that a man of God has to be if he is a good minister is somebody who has renounced material possessions and riches as the goal of his life personally.

IV. The Ministry of Pastoring is to Govern, to Supervise.

While some people flat out deny the existence or biblical nature of pastors, others destroy the ministry of pastor by taking away his authority. Some would want to make the pastor just an employee, like the janitor. He has to do what the church tells him to do, and the pastor has no say in nothing really unless the church gives him authority to do it.

First we need to return to Acts 20 (above) where Paul says, "the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God". The pastor is appointed to the ministry of oversight by the Holy Ghost, not by men. Their purpose is to spiritually feed the church of God. The first observation here is that men of God are called by the Holy Spirit to the ministry and are placed into the ministry by God, not by men. This would mean that there is not a strict employer-employee relationship between pastor and church. Before a man ministers in a church, he has to be called by God to that church.

Secondly we see in Titus 1 (above) that Paul command Titus, "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee". Apparently there were some needed things ("wanting") that Titus needed to take care of. One of these things was the identification of men of God ("elders" if you will). This does not mean that Titus (a missionary) choose their pastor for them necessarily. I have heard of this happening on the mission field (commonly) and at times a church asks a sister church to help them find a good pastor. Neither of these situations is really recommendable (in my opinion).

What we should understand by this is that Paul wanted Titus to identify for the Crete church the qualities necessary in a bishop, and Titus being in that church, could point out individuals that would qualify. Essentially Paul reproduces the requirements he gave Timothy in 1 Timothy 3. We will deal with this later, but God gave the church a list of requirements so that probably means they should be deciding, or at least have a say.

Let's here define a job description of pastor, and in other studies we will elaborate on them.

(1) to pastor (spiritually feed the church).
(2) Pastoral watch care (attend to the spiritual needs of the individuals)
(3) to advise, warn, and protect the sheep from dangers
(4) spiritual intercession (prayer) for the sheep.

Who's the Boss?

Christ is the head of the Church.

Christ is the head of the church, and we are His body. But how does that operate? Simply put, the leader refuses to do things as he thinks fit, and demands that things be done as God desires, according to God's will. It is important for the leader to set aside his way of doing things and to seek out wisdom and knowledge of how God wants things done. We can only discern God's will by means of the Word of God and the direction of the Holy Spirit. That obliges the leader to know well the Scriptures. Simply and bluntly put, no pastor will know the Word of God working a secular job fulltime and working as pastor part time. That simply doesn't work.

We can say that Christ rules in His Church only when that church's leaders are daily, constantly, and fervently seeking to discern God's will on a moment by moment basis.

The Pastor is the Executive of the Local Church

There is a different between being the owner and being the executive. The owner can shut the place down, destroy it, or burn if he wills. The chief executive cannot.

Think of it like this. The entire concept of pastor is taken from the OT shepherds of sheep. They had the authority to decide where to take the sheep, when to move them, how long to stop at a place, etc. But they cannot sit down and have lamb chops every night for supper. The first is within their duties, and the second is an abuse.

In the OT concept of pastor is one of chief executive officer. The shepherd makes all the decisions for the sheep. He basically knows and does what he thinks best. At the same time he walks with the sheep, in front of them. They follow him, but basically just are where he is. There the sheep (church) will only be as spiritual or as healthy as their pastor (in general even though there may be exceptions, rarely there are). This makes it very important to find a pastor who truly is pushing his spiritual life to it fullest extent. Don't even consider for a moment a fellow who is looking at coasting spiritually, or who wants the easily and less conflictive position.

The concept of ruling is clearly in the OT concept (RA'AH) of pastor. The pastor of sheep rules the sheep in his taking care of them. This is natural and logical. Everybody surely can see that the pastor has to have control of a lot of the elements of the church if he is going to spiritually teach the people.

If we can accept that many times the word "elder" and "pastor" and "bishop" were interchangeable, then here we see that there was a duty of the elder of ruling (governing) that went hand in hand with teaching and doctrine.

We have already dealt with this, but the bishop is one who rules his own house and equally rules the church of God.

The OT Concept of Pastoring (RA'AH)

God rebuked the spiritual leaders of OT Israel because they did not fulfill their duties as spiritual pastors of the nation. These indictments are very pointed even for modern day pastors.

When we see that in the OT the pastors took care of the sheep, and this involved making many day to day important decisions about the welfare of the sheep, we need to accept the fact that this is exactly what God means when He parallels modern day spiritual leadership of a local church with these animal caretakers. Moreover, it is a sad commentary that God makes on a group of people who are "shepherdless". In some modern Christians' minds, a pastorless church is exactly what is God's will. But the above verses pretty much show this not to be the case. The drift of these verses is exactly the point, a shepherdless (human shepherd) group is a disaster. They are not going anywhere, they are disorganized, and they are ineffective.

God wants His people under the leadership of a godly and true man of God. These spiritual leaders will constantly (feed) give God's people knowledge and understanding of God's will through exposition of the Scriptures. This reflects as much on the need of a man of God directly things as it does tell us what the man in charge should be doing (ordering things according to the will of God and towards compliance and efficiency).

At this point, we clearly have to acknowledge that the office and ministry of pastor is biblical, and that God has many things to say about this. To reject "pastors" as unbiblical is to wiggle and twist all this verses to mean something else, which in the end analysis, God mentions "pastor" in the local church, and that is without debate. So the concept is absolutely biblical.