The Office of Pastor

February 29, 1992

- we've been studying the local church the last several weeks
- we've just concluded a pretty extensive study of the
purposes of the local church
- now we want to turn our attention to what God's Word says
about the leaders of the local church
- Lord willing, today we'll discuss the office of pastor, and
next week we'll talk about the office of deacon

- I think it might be wise to mention here that there is a
difference between talking about church leadership and
church government
- the difficulty is that in many businesses and
organizations, the ideas of leadership and government are
basically synonymous
- i.e. the president of the company makes the decisions

- there's nothing necessarily wrong with that in business,
but we need to point out that, while there's obvious
overlap in the concepts of leadership and government in a
church--the terms are not synonymous

- in a few weeks we'll study church government more fully
- I'd just like to mention here, for those who might not
know, that our church believes in congregational government
- that means that every church member, under the authority
of God and His Word, has a vote in what goes on in the
church

- that’s congregational government--we'll study that more
fully in a couple of weeks

- when it comes to the issue of leadership--we're talking
about those that the congregation calls/elects to be their
pastors and deacons...SO:
1) Jesus Christ is the HEAD of the church, and He has
provided direction for us through His Word.
2) The church body, in submission to Him, selects men to
be their pastors and deacons.
3) The church leaders are responsible to lead in a way
that is consistent with what the Bible says about their
life and office.
4) The church members are responsible to respond to that
leadership in a way that is consistent with what the
Bible teaches.

- I say that to emphasize this point - the way
labor/management relations are often viewed in the world
have no place in God's church.
- we could think of literally dozens of ways that that’s true
- but my primary concern is that we don't bring the
"world's freight" into this discussion and miss all that
the Lord has for us.

- so today and next week we're talking about the leaders the
church body selects -- later in the study we'll deal more
with the issue of government

INPUT - there's an important question I'd like us to "bat
around" for a minute and that is - "What is the
world's view of a pastor/preacher today?"

INPUT - why is it important that we understand what God's
Word has to say on this subject?

- point - a lot of different ideas out there
- let's study what God's Word has to say

- there's different ways to "divide up" this material
- what I'd like to present to you is that there are four
primary biblical sources to learn what God says about the
pastor

1) the terms used to describe the man and his office
2) the qualifications given for the pastoral office
3) verses that tell us the pastor's responsibility to the
church
4) verses that tell us the church's responsibility to the
pastor.

I. The Terms Used To Describe The Pastor and His Office

- its important to know that the Bible gives several
different terms to describe the pastor.
- we need to know what those terms are, and how they are
related to one another.

A. What they are

- let me just mention them here - we'll look at some
of these verses in more detail in a few minutes

1. elder - Acts 20:17 - "And from Miletus he sent to
Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.

2. bishop - Titus 1:7 - "And a bishop must be ..."

3. shepherd (pastor/teacher) - Eph. 4:11 - "And he
gave some...pastor/teachers."

4. minister - Rom. 15:25 - "But now I go to
Jerusalem to minister..."

- now, one question that might come up is - "wait a
minute - How come we don't have any bishops? any
elders?
- we need to get some...Bishop Purcell...Elder Doerr

B. How these terms are related

1. They are synonymous in that they refer to the same
office.

- very important point - a careful study of the
passages that use these terms shows that the
Bible uses these terms interchangeably.

- I'd like to give a chart that compares the uses of these
terms.
- a couple of things we need to say about the chart:
1) the idea of pastor/teacher is connected in some
passages and separated in others. We will separate it
on the chart.
2) the fourth term, "minister", is not on the chart
because the uses of that term are isolated from the
others and are usually verbs. We'll talk about that
term more later on.

Passage Elder Bishop Pastor Teacher

Acts 20:17-28 x x x

Titus 1:5-9 x x x

I Peter 5:1-2 x x x

I Timothy. 5:17 x x

Eph. 4:11 x x

I Tim. 3:1-2 x

point - the Bible uses these terms interchangeably

- Question - does our church have a bishop(s)?
(yes - in that the pastoral office could be described
in its fullest biblical sense as a
"elder/bishop/pastor-teacher minister"

- Why don't we use all those terms? (won't fit on the
stationary!)

2. Different terms are used to describe different
facets of the role.

- that’s true of most of us. It would be difficult
to have one term that describes what you do at
work.
- take examples

- because this issue is so important to the way
the church functions - the Lord has given us
several terms to describe the same office.

- one person has said:

bishop - office
pastor - function
minister - attitude
elder - man

C. What these terms emphasize

A. Bishop (I Tim. 3:1,2; Phil. 1:1)

1. term means "one who oversees." - Literally, he
"watches over your shoulder."

2. term also means "one who superintends."
- a pastor must be someone who is concerned
about the spiritual well-being of the people
in the church.
- he must encourage, correct, and counsel to
help folks in the church grow.

B. Elder (Acts 20:17; I Peter 5:1)

- emphasizes spiritual maturity
- pastor can't be a novice or a newcomer

C. Shepherd

- Acts 20:28, I Peter 5:2, Eph. 4:11

- emphasis is on feeding and guiding

D. Minister

- Rom. 15:25, II Cor. 4:1, Col. 4:17, I Tim. 1:12

- we'll talk more about these verses and concepts in a minute
when we talk about the pastor's responsibility and the
church's responsibility
- but there are a couple of questions that "flow out of" what
we've talked about so far:

- here's one that pastors ought to focus on after looking
at these concepts:

1) Are you willing to fulfill these various aspects of
your pastoral role?
- are you willing to oversee? (can't be an
"approval junkie" - can't be afraid of what
others think – that’s why Peter told pastors to
"take the oversight willingly" (I Peter 5:2)
- are you working at spiritual maturity? - at being
and becoming more of an "elder."
- are you willing to shepherd? Do you like studying
and preparing and teaching/preaching?
- are you committed to feeding and caring for
God's flock just like a shepherd would care
for a flock?
- are you a servant? - are you going to have time
for people or are you going to give the
impression that you're too busy or important
for them?
- repeat question

- INPUT - from this study so far, what questions should a
church member ask him/herself?

2) Do you want a biblical pastor - and what
evidence can you give that demonstrates your
openness for, and appreciation of the
"elder/bishop/pastor-teacher/minister"

II. Qualifications

- we studied the qualifications a few months ago when we
studied the pastoral epistles so I'm going to say
anything else about them here.
- my purpose in putting them in the notes is so that if
you pull these out of the file, you'll tell yourself to
go back and also study the pastoral epistles notes.

III. A Pastor's Responsibility To The Church

- we've hinted at some of these things as they've come up
in the passages. Let's study some of them in more
detail.

A. Take heed - Acts 20:28

INPUT - who is the pastor to heed?

1) himself
2) those in the flock

- INPUT - if there was something in your life
that was not pleasing to God and it somehow
came to my attention (or one of the other
pastors), what would you want us to do?
(perhaps better worded - what would God want
us to do?)

B. Feed - Acts 20:28

- dev. - how Bible college/seminary education works
- develop impact on "home Bible studies"

- hit issue of - no excuse for not being prepared

C. Warn - Acts 20:31

- INPUT - in this context - what does the warning
especially have to do with?

D. Pray - Acts 6:4

E. Provide leadership

cf. uses of "rule"

Titus 1:5 - "set in order"