Pastor

The LORD is my Pastor; I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1)

I know some are already protesting that I have corrupted their favorite verse

I will start by stating a very simple truth, a truth that we many times confuse with our compartmentalization.

It is that the name pastor is another name for shepherd.

That compartmentalization has aided us in lowering the standards for the people we call pastor because they are so different from the Pastor our call originates with.

Yet it is the same Person we are ultimately answerable to as to our pastoral responsibilities.

You see, no one is called into the pastoral ministry by people, unless he is the hireling Christ talked about. Such will be answerable to the people who called him as to his calling.

I have never in my life heard a minister speak in the words of the politician, that he was heeding to the call of the people when seeking a position. No minister ever says that.

Again no minister says that they responded to the call of their stomach or their laziness index.

Every minister I have heard always says that they were responding to God’s call. And they even demonstrate how that call came and the battles they fought to respond to it.

Isn’t it amazing that we then use a worldly standard to assess that call? Isn’t it stupid when we use worldly standards to demonstrate the success of that call?

But even worse is the fact that we base the running of the pastoral calling on the world.

As such, we feel we have done well or failed purely on worldly standards. And by worldly I am not talking about sin and wickedness, though many, due to their shift in the one they report to, eventually end up there.

Again let us look at John 10.

I am the Good Pastor. A good pastor lays down his life for his flock. (John 10: 11)

Is that our standard?

I want to challenge us to read the Bible as it was written without making one word mean different things to satisfy our doctrine or theology.

Why do we love being called pastor when we are not willing to go the whole distance of being like our Model?

Look at this pastor who ministers in the slums yet lives in the leafy suburbs where none of his sheep can access due to transport, security, and other logistical and social challenges yet it is the same slum dwellers who pay for that house and car that drives him there, some who have a hard time putting food on their tables.

How much like Christ, the Good Pastor, are they?

Or this pastor who drives the congregation’s systems using proxies until they are bought that house or car. Or this other one who threatens to quit (of course in a very ‘spiritual’ way) if their package is not improved.

Was Christ ever like that? Is that the way God pastors us?

I have taken verses all of us know so well to challenge us to think about those we call pastors.

God is our model. Christ exemplified and incarnated that model.

How do we treat weakness? How do we treat sin? How do we deal with talent and gifting? How do we deal with wealth and the wealthy? How do we deal with the down and outs? How do we deal with the repentant?

The Bible was written to help us understand the responsibilities our callings demand. This by showing us God dealing with people, those on His side and those against Him.

Next time I will be writing about pastor from a farmer’s view. And this because the Bible is basically a farming book.

We therefore err by interpreting Biblical terms in a different context.

But suffice it when I conclude by stating the obvious (which is not so obvious when we compartmentalize our theology); that God is the model for the pastor’s office. And in fact it is not exactly an office. It is a function according to the scriptures.

Just like we have the attributes of God showing us who God is and how He operates, we have our ministries described.

Forgive me for taking so long to write.

My computer misbehaved and it became impossible to write anything because it was swallowing it whole, saving only titles.  I therefore had to wait until that was sorted.

I hope to be more consistent in my posts.

Once again forgive me for being unable to post anything for some time.

God bless you