WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A PASTOR?

Look no further than this statement from The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism:

"The privileged task of pastors and teachers is to lead God's people (laos), into maturity and to equip them for ministry. Pastors are not to monopolize ministries, but rather multiply them, by encouraging others to use their gifts and by training disciples to make disciples. The domination of the laity by the clergy has been a great evil in the history of the church. It robs both laity and clergy of their God intended roles, causes clergy breakdowns, weakens the church, and hinders the spread of the Gospel. More than that, it is fundamentally unbiblical."

It is good to see someone agreeing with what the scriptures say. But the fact remains, how many people who take the title and position of “pastor” do this? How many prefer to have the power and the breakdown?

Despite the Lausanne Committee saying it and saying that what is happening is unbiblical, the denominational leaders are more interested in protecting their position of authority instead of doing what the scripture teaches, and that is to dissipate their authority and ministry.

If there is only one pastor in the church, then the pastor is a failure. Every pastor should be producing other pastors. Every teacher should be producing other teachers. Every evangelist should be producing other evangelists.

Back in the eighties I started and ran a para church ministry. Within six months of its formulation I had four of the people who came to the ministry for help meeting with me once a week to begin their leadership training with a view to taking over many of the responsibilities of the ministries and eventually to become joint leaders and eventually to take over the leadership. After I stood down, one of those young men led the ministry for eight years.

In most churches, anyone who has a calling from God into leadership usually has to move to another church to get anywhere as the person at the top won’t accept someone who is on equal terms. That is why we have churches full of “a senior pastor”. Why don’t we have churches with 10 senior pastors? It is obvious that the “senior pastor” does not want to relinquish his position of power and he certainly does not want to fulfill what the scripture says he should do.

I have been in several churches in Australia and not one of them has more than one “senior pastor”. That suggests there is a hierarchy of spirituality with the man at the top being considered more spiritual than anyone else and the only one who has the ability to hear from God and lead the church.

This is a complete fallacy as the New Testament Church experienced leadership by a plurality of elders, never by “a pastor” and as the church grew, more elders were added so that ONE MAN did not have to assume responsibility for the leadership of the church.

Whenever you see a church building with a sign outside that says “Senior Pastor: John Thingamajig,” you know that the church is not interested in biblical leadership models so your opportunity to fulfill your calling is going to be minimal. They prefer their own cultural traditions with one man assuming all the power and if you disagree with anything he says, you will be considered a renegade.