What are pastors? They are servants of Jesus Christ just like every other believer. They are body parts. They have specific functions in the church, functions which are no more important, no less important than the functions of every other member of the body.
Don’t miss what I’m saying. This is vital to a proper understanding of the church.
Let me make it personal. I am a fellow servant with you of Jesus Christ. The only authority I have is that which our Master delegates to me as I humbly submit myself to him and serve his church. He gives me his authority so that the church might be built up as I function in the way he means for me to function as a part of his body.
Read the pastor’s job is from Ephesians 4.
Jesus “gave some to be…pastors and teachers…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”
My job is to help the church by preparing others for works of service, by encouraging unity, by building others up, by pointing the way toward maturity. I do all this under the leadership of the one who gave me to be a pastor. I do all this so that the church won’t be tossed back and forth by new winds of false teaching. I do all this so that every member of the church, myself included, will grow in their relationship to Jesus.
God gives me his authority for the tasks he’s given me. So I encourage unity under his authority for your benefit or I encourage it in vain. I rebuke under his authority for your good or I rebuke in vain. I prepare you for service under his authority for your profit or I prepare you in vain. I correct under his authority for your gain or I correct in vain.
Everything I do for the church of Jesus Christ I do under his authority or I do it in vain. He is the gift-giver. I am only the gift-receiver and gift-user. Without his power behind the gift, I am worthless to the church.
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