THE HEART OF THE PASTOR
In Ephesians 4:11,
when St Paul mentions some of the ministries that JESUS had given to his
Church, he mentions the office of ‘PASTOR’ among them.
The single
mention of this ministry, does not respond to other factor, except the granting
of special gifts that constitutes some of the ministers, into Pastors, others
into Evangelists, and others into Teachers, and so on. If all of these were
merely functions, totally interchangeable between them, he would just have said
that Lord Jesus constituted ‘ministers’, but he specifically singles out one
from the other, by saying
‘Are all
apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?’
1Corinthians
12:29
Every one of
these functions has a separate number of gifts that constitutes their recipient,
into what God wants them to be.
WHAT MAKES
A MINISTER A ‘PASTOR’
A Minister
becomes a Pastor, when in his heart he has a desire of serving the Christian
community, and looking after the wellbeing, spiritual and material of his
brethren (1Peter 5:1-4).
The man called
to be a Pastor, has more than a passion for teaching knowledge or bringing the
gospel to the unbelievers, he has a passion for the wellbeing and spiritual
development of the Christian community where he belongs. He is inclined to
provide assistance, advice and support to all men, women and children in his
community and at larger levels.
ARE ELDERS
AND PASTORS THE SAME?
A man called to
be a Pastor, generally is also chosen to be an Elder, which is a Church office
and not a ministry as such, because it is from there when a Pastor can bring to
realization his full potential as a Servant of God and of his Church.
But a Pastor, as
well as a Prophets or Teacher, are called directly by Lord JESUS, and need no
human pre-approval or Ordination to receive their ministry.
Elders however,
are the governing Church public office, that it is conformed by different
ministries, and needs a proper ceremony of Ordination or Commissioning before
taking formal charge. A Christian community must have at least 3 Elders to keep
governmental balance (Acts 14:23).
CONCLUSION
The Church receives
a testimony of the ministries, because without being self-proclaimed, every
gifted man is so obvious, that the congregation will give testimony of who they
are and what type of ministers they are, and among them, the love of the Pastor
will shine through like a Diamond.
When Pastors are
chosen to be Elders as well as any other Minister, working on a FT basis, it is
responsibility of the Church to support them.
Omar Flores.
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