A recent Grace Talk question was posted regarding our stance at GFSF regarding church leadership. We are an elder-led church. We do not have a Sr. Pastor. However, churches all over town have Sr. Pastors. Why don’t we? Isn’t Dan really in that role? If it quacks like a duck…???
Let me start with a quote from Ephesians 4:11-12.
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”
Pastor: literally, a helper, or feeder of the sheep.
Besides the literal sense the word has now a figurative meaning and refers to the minister appointed over a congregation. This latter meaning is recognized in the translation of the King James Version.
There is only the one appearance (in Ephesians, quoted above) of the word in the New Testament in both the KJV and the NIV. However, the KJV does use the word in a significant number of places in the Old Testament to describe those who had authority to teach and influence the people of Israel. I think this is why the word came into such popular usage in the English-speaking world. Apparently, the Geneva Bible adopted the word (which is Latin) through Calvin’s influence.
The more common word would be “shepherd.” Over the years, “pastor” was applied to anyone who served the local church in a teaching and guiding capacity. Since Paul applies “shepherding” language to elders (presbuteros) in Acts 20, it is apparent that these men served in this role. It is impossible, however, to determine for sure if they alone served in this role. Thus, the possibility exists that one might serve as a pastor but not necessarily be an elder.
Whereas apostles, prophets, and evangelists ministered in the Church at large, pastors and teachers served in the local congregation.
Because the more clear understanding is that elders serve in the role of pastors, we have chosen to identify the office of Elder and the job of pastor as one-in-the-same. Therefore all Elders at Grace Fellowship are pastors and are appointed based on their giftedness to fill that role. Whether or not an Elder is supported in full-time ministry by the church has no bearing on his role as a pastor. All Elders serve as pastors.
There is no biblical precedence for a Senior Pastor that has ruling authority over the other pastors or elders. However, one could be senior in spiritual maturity and influence and recognized as such by the church. We choose to avoid the term, “Senior Pastor” because of the cultural baggage associated with the title. But we do recognize that there will be some in the pastoral ministry of our church who will be more senior than others (in spiritual maturity and influence).
Many phenomena led to the church adopting a single pastor model for church leadership. The simple practicality of having a CEO over a church organization lends itself to such a model. Also, where churches struggle to find qualified teachers (such as in pioneer times in this country), a congregation would be fortunate to have a pastor leading the church. Governance of the congregation would often default to him as the only one with the time and training. Many modern churches are thriving under this model because of the visibility of the position and its usefulness in drawing in large numbers who “enjoy the preaching.” We’ve all heard people say, “Oh, I go to __________’s church.” (fill in the name of the Sr. Pastor). This is what we want to avoid if at all possible.
So is our “pastor” now equivalent to “teacher”? What about its usage in the NT…when I read “pastor,” what should I think in my head?
Thanks for the answer, and yes, I did hear you say “more on this later.” Just asking as clarifications come to me…
There is some question as to whether the Eph. 4 usage of “poimen” is distinct from teacher (didaskalos) or is a modifier of teacher (i.e. “pastor-teacher”). My understanding is that the Greek is ambiguous. In any event, a pastor is more than a teacher. The title carries the idea of teaching with authority and leading by teaching. Just as a herdsman cares for his sheep, so is a “pastor” to care for the flock that God has given him. This care includes feeding (filling the spiritual hunger of the congregation), guarding (protecting the doctrinal integrity of the church), and leading by example (sheep follow a shepherd whom they trust).
Jeffrey, think of “pastor” more of a description of a person’s ministry than a title for one’s office. Your dad is a “pastor” to you in many ways. You will be a “pastor” to your children (Lord willing) some day. If you also have received the gift of “pastoral” care over people in the local church, then you too will be recognized as a “pastor” of the church. If you meet the qualifications of an elder some day, you may then fill the office of elder/overseer where you will have official authority in the church’s governance.
We will be posting a “position paper” on this by the end of the month in order to help everyone understand how the Bible speaks to this issue of oversight. It will be a comprehensive examination of where the term “elder” comes from and examine the terms “bishop/elder/pastor” and the roles in which they function according to the Biblical usage. The term “senior pastor” is simply an organizational title. Let me try to clarify the term “senior” even more. Each member of the leadership team serves as a “senior” in his area of oversight (as do “directors” at Grace in their area of service under the guidance of a Leadership Team member), however, there are specific things that the Leadership Team at Grace (Elders) must be unanimous on in order to model the spiritual role elders have. These would include: beliefs, mission, and resources (people and funds). In these areas no one person can make a “senior” decision as to God’s will/direction. The Leadership Team (made up of the Elders/Pastors/Bishops)come together and examine the biblical record and make directional decisions as a team. At this level it is not a majority vote, or a executive decision. The decision reflects the will of the Leadership Team as they perceive the leading of the Lord. Make sense?
For those who are curious, I looked through my Greek grammars and commentaries on Ephesians and for all the more recent commentaries (all conservative though) there seems to be a consensus that they are two separate roles. This is probably due to the advance in computer searches in Greek have made it a little easier to compare all the different constructions which are similar to this one.
This particular issue involves the fact that the two nouns – pastor and teacher only have a single definite article (‘the’ in English). Daniel Wallace – who wrote the most comprehensive modern grammar and also did his dissertation on the article – looked at all cases of one article followed by two plural nouns separated by kai. From this research he determined that the first noun is the subset of the second so that “all pastors are to be teachers, though not all teachers are to be pastors.” (Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, pg 284)
Matt, you say that there seems to be a consensus that the roles are different in Eph. 4 (as opposed to “pastor-teacher”). Is this correct?
I don’t get it…is Wallace a dissenting voice on this?
There seems to be a consensus among my more recent commentaries (several of which reference Wallace as their reason why). I am not sure that there is a consensus among all commentators though. It seems that most of the debate has been caused by a misunderstanding of Sharp’s rule which does not apply to plurals.
Wallace is opposed to the view that it is describing a single “pastor-teacher” role. Instead both nouns have the full force. So there are both pastors and teachers. All pastors should be teachers, but not all teachers will be pastors.
Hope that clears it up a little bit.
Who wants to write Dr. MacArthur? Let’s get Brian Robbins on this right away!
I still haven’t come to a peace on the role of elders in a church. Does 1 Corinthians 5 or Matthew 18 support the idea that many issues should ultimately be decided on by the members of the church, after an approval by the elders? And Biblically where is the line drawn on what the elders send to the church and what they decide on themselves. Congregationalist stand on the belief that passages such as 1 Corinthians 5 imply that the final say in the church should come down to the members, Why or Why not is this good, and are there many other good biblical texts for or against the ideas of congregationalism.
Tyler,
I haven’t studied the particular doctrines of the Congregationalists in order to verify their beliefs but if what you say is a legitimate characterization of their view, namely, that the instructions regarding church discipline in Mt. 18 and 1Cor. 5 should lead to a congregational-rule model of church governement, then I’d say they are making the error of reasoning from the narrow, practical application and drawing general rules.
Let me give you another example of this flawed reasoning. In some traditions, the Bible is interpreted using a Command, Example, & Inference model to determine the doctrines and practices of the church. For instance, Paul instructs the church to “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. ” (1 Cor. 16:2) This is seen as a direct apostolic command to take up a collection on Sunday. Therefore, it is viewed as a command that money must be taken up EVERY Sunday. In fact, it would be wrong to take up money on any other day. It would be equally wrong to skip a Sunday of taking up a collection.
However, when you read the context of the passage, Paul was giving them practical instructions on how they should collect the money that he was going to take with him. He wanted to avoid going house-to-house making a collection.
The more appropriate way to interpret the teachings of this passage would be to look for the overarching general principle from which Paul applies the more specific teaching. The general principle is to give as you prosper. Another general principle might be “don’t waste a busy apostle’s time making him knock on doors collecting money”!!!! Therefore the specific application of these principles is to make a collection on Sunday when the church normally meets.
How does this relate to your question? Well, I think the Congregationalists are looking at the specific application of church discipline (take it before the church) and drawing from it a general rule of congregational rule on all matters of church government. It seems that the public nature of church discipline requires that the congregation be involved in the process since it is congregational fellowship that is being withheld from the excommunicants involved.
The New Testament is clear that bishops/elders are those who direct the affairs of the church. Exactly how this is done is ambiguous and thus you see variations from one church to another as to how this plays out in church business. We have modeled GF partly on Bethlehem Baptist (congregational) and partly on Grace Community Church (elder ruled) and have tried to incorporate the best of both.