Who is a Pastor?

The next logical question to be answered in this series on “what is a pastor” is who fulfills the duties of a pastor in the church. We said in the last post that a pastor/teacher has two sides of responsibility. One side is that of the care giver and the other is that of the teacher. The pastor shapes the practical theology of the church as he teaches while giving care. For such guidance he is responsibly and has a great impact.

In the church there are three people or groups of people that are responsible for fulfilling the biblical duties of the pastor.

1) Lay Persons 
The spiritual gift of pastoring is not something given just to vocational ministers. God has given the gift of pastoring to people throughout the church. We can not expect one man to be the only stitches, and the only glue that holds the social and communal fabric of the church together. We are all called to care for those which we have relation with inside the church. John 13:35 states “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” But, there are those that are particularly gifted in this regard and it should be understood that those person’s means of servicing the community of faith is through pastoral care.

2) Elders
Biblically speaking the church is to be lead by a group of persons, not one man and not in a democratic system. Rather a group of elders is to be elected from the people to serve the church and lead the church. The tasks of this group of elders falls to the primary leadership of the church. One of the most significant roles of elders is to care for the people which are in that church. Acts 20:28 says to the elders “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” We see here further use of the shepherding metaphor.

3)Traditional Pastors
Last but not least is the role of the traditional pastor. I am not speaking of the biblical pastor here but the traditional use of the term pastor, that is to say the leadership of the church. Those in leadership have a responsibility to emulate Jesus and have compassion and concern for those he leads. This may not be his spiritual gift (as it isn’t in my case) but as leaders they must care for those the lead, this is what we call being a servant leader. In this 1 Peter 5:2-3 reminds us to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; ³ not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock”.

I hope we all see now that a pastor and the work of pastoring is not just the job of the guy that preaches but of several people from a congregation. It is in all of our best interests if we will use and work in our spiritual gifts and allow others and our leaders to do the same.