The Office of Pastor

Verses 1 through 6 that you just read tell us what that we are all in common. Verse 7 now begins to tell us what we have as individuals.

Notice that there is no semicolon between pastors and teachers because pastor and teacher is one gift. you can't be a pastor without being a teacher. A pastor is to teach the flock of the Lord Jesus.

Now, there is a separate and distinct office of the teacher and we see that in listed in 

The difference between these gifts, in general, is the four gifts - apostles, prophet, evangelist and teacher are given to the entire body of Christ and usually are traveling ministries. The pastor is set into a local church. That is not to say that he cant travel, but his main obligation is to the local church.

Did you notice that the pastor is a gift from God ? All of these ministries are gifts and their offices should be treated as such.

Let's continue with verse 12 of Ephesians chapter 4

I used to think that the pastor had to do everything Sunday morning and Sunday night he preached. Monday he visited people. Tuesday he went to the hospital for visitation. Wednesday he had to counsel and then he took off enough time to preach on Wednesday night. Thursday he did this and that and Friday he did that and Saturday he went around and ate with everyone. Then on Sunday he preached again. He did everything. And reading this verse out of the King James, you would get that idea. But when I read it in the Amplified, it first opened up and the lord helped me to understand that verse. His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), that they should do the  ministering toward building up Christ's body ( the church).

The Greek word for pastor as poimen and it should be translated shepherd. It is found about eighteen times in the new Testament and only once was it ever translated pastor.

A pastor is a shepherd.

The pastor is the shepherd of the flock ( the local church ). I as a shepherd of a flock, it is important for me to know where I'm leading them. It's important for me to get information from God. Now, my example is Jesus because He also is a shepherd.

Look a t 1 Peter 5.

Here is a pastor exhorting pastors. He tells them to "feed the flock of God." "Feed in the Greek means to pastor." So he is saying, "Pastor the flock of God. "They are Gods sheep.

He continues, "don't do it because you feel obligated to." I will not feel obligated to pastor the flock God is to entrust me with. I will do it willingly. God won't drag me into a church and tell me that I am going to do it weather I like it or not. My will is involved.

As a pastor I have been given oversight of a church flock, but they are God's sheep, they are not mine. Here is where discipleship has gone wrong. It has taught that you are a disciple of men. My obligation is to teach you how to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care what color of car you buy or what color of tie you get or how many kids you have or where you are going to move. And, it is not my obligation after I teach the Word of God to go to your house and make you live it. It's my obligation to give you the Word, and it is your obligation to go out and live it.

What is the Pastor's Job?

If you ask twenty people today ,"What is the pastor's job?" you will get twenty different opinions. But let's go to the Word and find out the truth.

Look at John 21:15-16

Notice in verse 15 that He says "Feed my lambs" in verse 16 he says 'Feed my sheep." There is a difference between sheep and lambs. Lambs are babies; they are newborns, Sheep are mature.

You say, "Well, the pastor is to feed both of them, right?"

Let us look at the Greek word translated Feed. In verse 15 the Greek word for "feed" is basko: it means "to spoon-fed, to take it up and put it in their mouth." In verse 16 'feed" is the same word we found over in 1 peter, piomino, and means "to pastor." So, a pastor is to feed lambs and pastor sheep.

What is difference between the two?

When children are born and brought home you feed them milk. Then comes a time when they get off the milk and start to eat the bottled food" but they still are not big enough to feed themselves, so the parents do. Children need to be spoon fed. Eventually, they get old enough so they may be trained to put the spoon in there own hand and feed themselves. All that needs to be done is for the food to be provided for them, and it's up to them to eat it. There is something wrong with a six-year-old who still needs spoon feeding. There are to many babies in the body of Christ that have been pampered far too long.

It is the job of the pastor to provide you with the Word. He will lay it in front of you and give you the spoon and everything, but he can't force feed you. The purpose of the pastor is, yes to feed the babies' but when they get to be sheep, he pastors them. Lead them to the food but let them eat it.

Prepare the word

The thing that has been wrong with so many churches is that because of pressure, the pastor has started doing everything else but administrate over the Word of God. God has given me as a pastor, one primary obligation and that is to prepare the Word for the congregation. Whether I spoon feed it to them or pastor it to them, my obligation is to prepare the food. And I can only do that by praying, staying before God and studying his Word.

I didn't say 100 per cent of the time. There are times when I do need to visit and see people. But the bigger the church gets the more help that is needed. The ministry gifts that arise in the church are the extensions of the pastor's ministry. They help him out and do things that he doesn't have time or resources to do. If the pastor has to do everything , the church's growth is limited.

When the government is right, all begin to fall in place. When a pastor has time to stay in the Word of God and meditate and stay before God and seek his face the Word will multiply. And when it does, people will beat a path to your door. It did not say the number of "converts" increased; it said the number of "disciples' increased.

When the government is correct, when the pastors have time to do there obligations and when they learn to delegate their authority, disciples of the lord will rise up. It is God's will that everybody in the pew move from a lamb into a sheep; move from baby into a mature child of God and learn to operate as disciple of the lord Jesus Christ.

I get my example from the chief shepherd of who was the greatest delegator who ever existed. Delegation doesn't cause your power to decrease, it causes it to increase. If Jesus had to run around and do everything the church would have fail. But Jesus today is our great high priest seated at the right hand of the Father. He has delegated His authority to pastors, teachers, etc. They have delegated to elders and deacons, right down to where we are all doing the work of the ministry.

Jeremiah makes a statement that was true in his day and is true today in the local church.

Why?

When a pastor leaves off seeking the lord, the church will be split, broken apart, and plundered. I have known of pastors who have done everything . The people loved and appreciated him but when that whole church was built on one man he worked himself to death. then what happened to the church it fell apart. Why? Because he was the church.

God is restoring the church today, raising it up again.