Voices: A pastor by any name is a pastor

My friend Scotty Swingler recently shared a thought-provoking post from Shane Pruitt, national next gen director for the North American Mission Board.

Pruitt said, “Please don’t ask Youth Pastors and College Pastors, [sic] when they’re planning on becoming a ‘real’ Pastor. They already are.”

I completely agree with Scotty and Shane. Christians should reject the idea youth pastors, college pastors and other pastors are not “real” pastors. But I think the widespread assumption that such ministry staff members are not “real” pastors is downstream of a more foundational error.

When you read the New Testament, you never see terms like “youth pastor,” “senior pastor” or other types of pastor. These distinctions are absent from the Bible.

I am not calling for the immediate, absolute abolition of all extra-biblical job titles or extra-biblical staff positions in the local church. But I think Baptist churches should be willing to reconsider the titles we use. Our goal is obedience to Scripture. If extra-biblical job titles create confusion over what biblical church leadership is, we should be willing to abandon such titles.

Pastors and deacons

The New Testament establishes two offices of leadership within the local church: pastors and deacons. Philippians 1:1 presupposes the presence of pastors and deacons as leaders. 1 Timothy 3:1-13 outlines the qualifications for those who would fill these roles.

The primary distinction between pastors and deacons relates to public teaching. A pastor must be able to teach (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:9-11). No such requirement exists for deacons. Deacons oversee administrative and material service in the local church to let pastors focus on teaching and spiritual care.

This distinction is rooted in Acts 6:1-6. Many Christians have understood this passage to be describing the origin of the deacon office. This is not explicit in the text of Acts, but the distinction of ministry responsibilities patterned in Acts 6 fits with the implied distinctions in 1 Timothy 3

There are references to apostles, prophets, evangelists and other leaders elsewhere in the New Testament—such as Ephesians 4:11. Regarding these, Baptist New Testament scholar Ben Merkle writes:

While the position of “evangelist” is important, similar to a missionary it is not viewed as a “church” office per se since the evangelist’s task is to minister outside the church. Regarding the offices of apostle and prophet, Paul clearly writes in Ephesians 2:20 that they were given to the church as a foundational ministry and therefore are no longer given today. [On this latter point, see also this article by Tom Schreiner.]

Based on the evidence in the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus), only pastors and deacons are established as ongoing offices of leadership within the local church. These are the only church “job titles” given in Scripture, and historically, most Baptists—with some exceptions—have embraced this twofold division.

What is a pastor?

The English word “pastor” derives from the Greek word for “shepherd,” poimén. The New Testament also uses a variety of other terms, translated into English variably as “elder,” “overseer,” “presbyter” and “bishop.” The pattern of biblical usage, however, seems to indicate that these terms are used interchangeably to designate the same role.

In addition to the primary teaching responsibilities in the local church, pastors are charged with the general oversight of the congregation and spiritual care for its members (1 Peter 5:1-5). The biblical pattern also appears to be a plurality of pastors in a given local church (Acts 14:23, Acts 20:17, Philippians 1:1, 1 Timothy 4:14, 1 Timothy 5:17, James 5:14).

Interestingly, as Ben Merkle and Baptist pastor Steve Meister have pointed out, 1 Peter provides the closest term to “senior pastor” or “lead pastor” found in the New Testament: “Chief Shepherd.” To whom does this “job title” apply? Jesus Christ. (See also Hebrews 13:20.)

In the New Testament, a pastor is a pastor. There are no “senior pastors,” “youth pastors” or other types of pastor. There may be different areas of focus among the pastors in a local church. There may be pastors in the same church who are supported financially full-time and those who are part-time or bivocational. But the New Testament presents no gradation of authority among the pastors of a local church.

Steve Meister also has pointed out to me the “first among equals” idea—often invoked regarding “senior” or “lead” pastors—“was originally conceived by Caesar Augustus as he was taking totalitarian control of Rome. So … it’s not exactly a principle with a real godly precedent.”

Confusion and conflict

This brings us back to Shane Pruitt’s post regarding “real” pastors. The reason so many Christians view youth pastors, college pastors and other pastors as not being “real” pastors is because so many churches have gone beyond Scripture in applying distinct “job titles” to their pastoral staff.

Regarding debates over gender and church leadership, I’ve noticed both complementarians and egalitarians get incredibly frustrated by some churches making women “functional pastors” while only giving them titles like “director” or “minister.” For complementarians, this is using clever semantics to circumvent Scripture. For egalitarians, this exploits women by giving them the burden of pastoral responsibilities without the recognition.

By sticking primarily to the terminology of pastors and deacons, Baptist churches hopefully would become clearer and more consistent in their practice. Either don’t give women responsibilities Scripture reserves for pastors, or give such women the title of pastor.

In addition, using a panoply of job titles beyond “pastor” and “deacon” typically implies a hierarchy that, as I have argued, is not present in the New Testament. This implication may not be intentional; some churches who use titles like “senior pastor” do not mean to suggest the senior pastor has more formal authority than the other pastors.

But in many churches, that is precisely what they mean: the “senior” or “lead” pastor is in charge, and other pastors and members of the staff are subordinate.

Such a hierarchy among the pastors in a local church goes beyond Scripture. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s necessarily sinful, but I would argue such a hierarchy lacks clear biblical support and can have potentially disastrous consequences—arrogance, authoritarianism, cults of personality. Such sins have destroyed churches and shipwrecked many Christians’ faith.

Pursuing clarity

I believe all pastors in a local church have an equal voice. I see no evidence in Scripture to suggest pastors in a given church should have a hierarchy of formal authority. Whatever formal authority the pastors have within the congregation should be shared equally among them, and the pastors should work together to minimize the informal authority any of them accrues.

Moreover, I am a congregationalist. I believe pastors, though they are charged to oversee and lead the congregation, ultimately are answerable to the congregation as a whole.

If you have multiple pastors and not all of them are paid staff members, obviously the paid pastors will carry the bulk of the pastoral responsibilities in terms of time commitment. But paid pastors don’t get to boss the unpaid pastors around, and when the pastors as a group have to make a decision, the paid pastors don’t have more authority than the unpaid pastors. Also, if a church has other paid staff who are not pastors, those staff do not “outrank” the unpaid pastors.

Pastors are not CEOs or presidents. Pastors are shepherds, and Scripture only designates one Chief Shepherd—Jesus Christ.

Joshua Sharp is the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Orange, and a graduate of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., and Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary in Waco. The views expressed are those of the author.