Bible Students

Abstract

This paper will cover four major sections. First, what is a pastor? This section will discuss the character of a pastor and the importance of character against duties. The section will seek to outline the importance of the character of the pastor over the actions of the pastor. Second, what does a pastor do? This section will discuss what the pastor practically does. It will seek to outline how the pastor carries out the mission of Jesus on earth. Third, pastoring in the Bible. This section will outline how Jesus acts as the representation of pastors now. It will seek to understand how Christ is the ultimate pastor which all modern pastors look to. After all of those considerations, the final section will outline what pastors should be and do in today’s era.

What is a Pastor?

There is a stark contrast between what a pastor does and who a pastor is. The work of the pastor is far less important than who a pastor is, because the work comes secondary to the character of the pastor. When the pastor seeks to grow spiritually, they will naturally be able to do the work of pastoring, as outlined below. When the pastor seeks to do the work of ministry without growing spiritually, they will become spiritually dry and burn out. In a classic case of biblical irony, the pastor must be more concerned with who they are than what they do. When they have that order correct, their work will be natural for them. 

The question is, then, who must a pastor be? First Timothy 3 outlines some of the requirements for an elder, which is analogous to a modern-day pastor. The pastor must desire the work, be above reproach, a one-woman man, sober, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not violent or quarrelsome, gentle and able to manage his own household, not greedy or a recent convert, and generally thought of well by outsiders. This list is an expression of deeper principles which will be explored in the following paragraphs.

The pastor must desire the work of ministry. All areas of the Christian life should be seen as ministry, but this kind of ministry is vocational church ministry. The first attribute of pastors which will define the rest of the qualifications is if the candidate for pastoral ministry actually desires to do the work he is called to do. The work of the pastor is as a spiritual leader. Christian leaders are not leaders in the same way worldly leaders are, but instead are servants of the flock. The shepherd of the flock is not one who is served by the sheep. Rather, the sheep are the ones served by the shepherds. Pastors are not called to a position of being served, but to a low position of serving others in the church body, spending their lives for the sake of others. The pastor’s heart must be willing to do this kind of service if he expects to faithfully work before the Lord. 

Second, the pastor must be above reproach. Others should not be able to point out neglected sin in the life of the pastor. It is important to note that the pastor will never be without sin. No one should expect to be completely rid of sin in this life. Therefore, the congregation should not expect the pastor to be without sin. However, there are three marks of the man who desires to actually rid themselves of sin and seek to be above reproach. First, the pastor must acknowledge sin. Ignored sin will fester and affect many parts of the life and work of the pastor. Second, the pastor must admit sin. Sin should not only be privately acknowledged, but should be brought to other people. Third, the pastor should seek accountability for the purpose of changing his behavior. Seeking accountability means the pastor is transparent with those around them and seeking their aid in helping him. This also means listening to what others have to say about the pastor needing to change his behavior. The pastor must Acknowledge, Admit, and seek Accountability. When the pastor does this, no one can bring to light any sin the pastor has not already acknowledged, admitted, and sought accountability for. No one will be sinless in this life, but confessing, repenting, and seeking accountability will keep one above reproach. 

Third, he must be a one-woman man, sober-minded, and self-controlled. The list now turns to more specific applications of the character of the minister. The pastor must be faithful to his wife. He must be sober-minded, making sure to think things through. He must not be a drunkard. He must lastly be self-controlled. While there are different points to be made with these four exhortations, there is one main theme: The pastor must have spiritually-healthy support systems. All four of these dangers (unfaithfulness, an unstable mind, drunkenness, and lack of self control) are especially dangerous when one does not take care of themself carefully. Specifically, the pastor must participate in self care. The pastor who gives himself to others without ever considering his own spiritual, emotional, and physical needs will eventually break. That breakage (also known as burnout) often shows itself in the moral failures of pastors, including affairs and drunkenness. When the pressure of ministry pushes down on a pastor without self care, he will break and turn to sinful releases. Even before he breaks, he will be unstable and unable to control himself, leading to bursts of anger, lust, pride, or a whole multitude of other sins. The pastor must have healthy spiritual, physical, and mental habits to keep them from these sins which constantly lurk around the corner. 

He must be respectable. The pastor should generally be respected by other people. A man who was well-known as the “local drunk” should have an extended time of repairing his public reputation before becoming a pastor. The Lord certainly can deliver anyone from their sin, but they should be able to wait during a time of proving their new lifestyle of purity. Additionally, the pastor should be respectable in some specific area. The pastor should not only be an older Christian (more mature than others), but should also seek to grow in specific areas they are gifted in. Pastors should generally be more studied and wise in areas of ministry than others in the congregation. For example, the pastor should be more well-read on discipleship, and seek to actively apply discipleship strategies. Alternatively, the pastor should often host individuals at their house and seek to counsel others. The pastor does not need to be good at everything, but they should have skills they are gifted in which they seek to improve, and those skills should be seen by the congregation as something to aspire to. 

The pastor must be hospitable. The one who seeks to go into ministry, especially as their primary work, should be welcoming of others into their home. Building on the previous point, pastors should be more skilled at hosting than the general congregation because they should give more time to learning to host well. As mentioned before, the pastor is a servant of the congregation. Personal time, the home, food, and fellowship all come together in hospitable activities, specifically in the pastor’s home, and aid in the work of the pastor. The pastor should care about his congregation, and should be willing to invite them into his personal life. 

The pastor must be able to teach. This is often seen as the only skill-based attribute of the pastor, though it can also be understood to be a point of character. The one who desires to go into ministry should be able to teach. Everyone is able to learn to teach, though some are especially gifted in this area. However, even though some are gifted, almost all people are able to learn to teach others. This means the one who desires to serve others should be willing to learn to serve through the teaching of the Word. All Christians are called to learn to teach through the call to discipleship. In order to make disciples, the Christian should know how to teach the Bible, at least one-on-one. Pastors, then, must be especially willing to learn to teach the Bible well. This does not necessarily mean a Sunday morning sermon, but it does mean that all servants of the congregation should be willing to put in the effort to learn to teach the Bible for the sake of discipleship and building up the body. The character trait here is the willingness to put in the time to learn to teach, and the understanding of the need to do so, in order to make disciples for Christ. 

He must not be violent or quarrelsome. The pastor who is a servant of the congregation, hospitable, self controlled, and generally loving, should not be violent or argumentative. The pastor who is consistently loving to the congregation should not also be violent and argumentative. If they are violent, then they should not be trusted to be loving to the congregation. The shepherd who violently attacks the flock should not be kept in the position of a shepherd. This does not mean the individual should never be allowed back into ministry, but that the individual must be given a time to grow and show themself a changed individual in order to be trusted to take care of the flock. 

He must be gentle and able to manage his own household. Another of the best ways to see how a pastor will behave in ministry is how they manage their own household. The work of the pastor is very similar to the work of the husband as the spiritual leader, as they both are the ones which lead from the place of serving others spiritually. The husband who strikes in anger, is unfaithful to his wife, is a drunkard, and is not willing to be hospitable to his own family will not be able to do these things well to the congregation. The same spiritual blockage which prevents the husband from loving his family will also prevent the man from pastoring the church well. The congregation can look at the family of the pastor and see how he will eventually treat them. Now, a man may love his family unconditionally, only for his family to rebel against him. The man whose family is out of control, but also out of his hands, may still be an amazing pastor to a congregation, though his time may be better spent on his primary responsibility, that being his family. Therefore, the pastor should be one who leads his family well. 

He must not be greedy or a recent convert. Greed, envy, and pride are often temptations of the pastor. The pastor who is greedy for money will be in ministry for the wrong reason. The pastor should be willing to serve the congregation well, but also expect to be able to support his family through his efforts. The pastor should not expect to have much money through pastoring, as pastoring is not a position of much money. Additionally, the pastor who is envious of other ministries or prideful of their own will be tempted to view ministry for similarly wrong reasons. The pastor should desire to be in ministry for the right reason. Additionally, they should not be a recent convert. As mentioned before, they should be able to have a sufficient time of proving themself well. The danger with recent converts is that they may come to believe they are better than those they lead, rather than understanding that the position of pastor is a position of serving others, not being made greater. The pastor should be one who is weathered through many seasons. 

He must be generally thought of well by outsiders. Finally, the pastor should generally be thought of well by outsiders. The world will view faithful Christians as strange and counter-cultural. This means those in the world should not be able to level any relevant claim against a pastor. This is similar to being above reproach. The outside world should not be able to honestly attach a claim of anger, envy, adultery, or any other sin against the pastor. The outside world may falsely make claims, or may make irrelevant claims, but these are to be ignored by the church. For example, the world may accuse pastors of hating homosexuals. The church should be able to see the difference between the pastor disapproving of homosexuality while still loving the individuals and desiring their repentance and reconciliation with God (the biblical response), against the view that homosexuals should be condemned and should never come to repentance because the pastor hates them. The church must have a grasp on contemporary issues and understand the differences between loving people and accepting sin. The church should know the difference between the world rightfully viewing a pastor poorly and wrongly viewing them poorly. 

Paul saw these attributes as some of the most important to mention for pastoral requirements. The pastor must be known by what they do through who they are. While this list includes many things the pastor is expected to do, the principles behind the list require that the pastor be a man of character, who loves the congregation out of his good character. As seen, the pastor is called to be a servant who is called to leadership for a season. Leadership in the church does not look like leadership in the world. The leaders of the church must be servants who seek to build up others, not to have themselves built up. Though they spend their time building others up, they must also have a personal relationship with the Lord in order to not be drained spiritually, in addition to simply protecting their own spiritual life. 

The pastor should be able and willing to partake in protected spiritual disciplines. Protected in this context refers to the need to give devoted time to these activities, not allow them to come and go as the schedule allows. Spiritual disciples come in all types, though the following are some of the most well-known which are beneficial practices for pastors. Pastors should have a heart of fostering their own relationship with the Lord. They must have a zeal for the Lord. The way pastors encourage the congregation must be through their own spiritual life. The pastor who does not have a personal relationship with the Lord can not encourage others to. The way to keep hold of a special personal relationship with the Lord is through spiritual disciplines. These spiritual disciplines must be detached from their ministry work, and must be intently personal. 

First, the pastor should participate in personal reading of the Bible. This does not mean reading the Bible in order to teach others, but only for the sake of oneself. The pastor should read the Bible for personal devotion unrelated to their pastoral ministry. Second, the pastor should pray apart from their ministry. They should have time to foster a relationship with the Lord through prayer. Third, the pastor should participate in confession. This is not the confession which happens before a priest, but the confession which happens between brothers and sisters in Christ. The pastor must be accountable in their personal life with personal friends. Confession necessitates that the pastor has non-work related friends and relationships. Fourth, the pastor must take part in hobbies. While this may seem unrelated to the previous spiritual disciples, a hobby unrelated to ministry is a way of appreciating the diverse and complex world the Lord has created. The pastor should be able to appreciate the works of the Lord apart from ministry through a hobby, such as gardening, golfing, graphic design, pottery, or another hobby which helps the pastor to appreciate the world the Lord has made. Those four habits (Bible reading, prayer, confession, and hobbies) will greatly help pastors to be of the right mind and character to do the work of ministry. Apart from any of those four, the pastor will be in a slow gradual decline into disqualifying themself from ministry through any of the ways discussed previously. 

What Does a Pastor Do? 

The work of the pastor should be focused on far less than who the pastor actually is. The work of the pastor comes naturally when the pastor is a man of character who desires to serve others spiritually. The outworking of the pastoral position is simply serving the people of his church spiritually, which is different for every church. Now, there are some themes which are universal, and so all pastors will need to know how to address that kind of spiritual guidance for their congregation. However, a pastor who meets all of the character requirements above should be able to diagnose what their congregation needs spiritually and be able to work for them accordingly. As such, the section on what a pastor does will be much shorter. 

The pastor, simply put, does two things: He must be a visible representation of Jesus with his congregation, and he must help other people to be more like Jesus as well. Representing Jesus well is outlined in the previous section. The man of character who both acknowledges his own sin while seeking to be more like Jesus will be a good representative of Jesus on earth. The pastor is a spiritual leader who the people can look to in order to know what Christ-like living should look like. 

Next, the pastor must push other people to be more like Jesus. The work of spiritual leadership, as outlined above, is to push people to be more like Jesus. The art of Christian leadership, especially in the church, is to build up and organize the giftings of the body of Christ for His service. This means the spiritual leader should be building up and organizing the spiritual giftings of the body for Christ’s service. The pastor must be one who serves the congregation spiritually, primarily through building up the body. This means the pastor must edify the body. Edification comes through a whole manner of actions, though here are a few. 

First, the pastor must encourage personal devotion to the Lord, especially through spiritual disciplines. This can be done at a whole-congregation level. Pastors should encourage the whole congregation to take up regular Bible reading, prayer, confession, and self care in order to better serve the Lord and have a closer relationship with Him. This is something that should be done for all people in the congregation. The pastor must be experienced in these areas to teach about them well. 

Second, the pastor must pour into the individual. This is often known as one-on-one discipleship. This goes further and deeper than the congregational-level shepherding. This is one-on-one discipleship, where the pastor personally grows the individual. This includes growing the giftings specific to the individual, as well as pointing out sin that needs to be dealt with. The pastor lives life with individuals. They build them up through personal time, attention, encouragement, rebuke, and general love and care for them. That is the method Jesus used, and the way pastors are to do Jesus’ work on earth. Pastors must love their congregants individually. 

The pastor must also be one who becomes more like Jesus, which requires that he practice self care. While this is not a paper specifically on self care, the active work of the pastor must include the work of fostering a personal relationship with Jesus. The pastor can not push others to be more like Christ through a personal relationship with Him is the pastor himself does not have a personal relationship with Christ. The pastor must know the Lord personally. This is done through practices of self care. The pastor who only pours out and does not allow himself to be poured into will become spiritually dry and burn out. However, the pastor who is continually fueled by his relationship with the Lord will have a faithful ministry. 

Pastoring in the Bible

If the pastor must represent Jesus on earth and point their congregations to Him, what did Jesus actually do to represent Himself when on earth? Jesus did many things when on earth to represent who He is. He taught, He gave rebukes, He built up individuals through relationships with them, encouraged God-given giftings, and also practiced self care. 

Jesus taught many things when He was on earth. The Gospels focus primarily on the words of Jesus as they relate to His actions, which represent well who He was when He was on earth. Jesus taught the meaning of the Old Testament, taught the heart of God, and taught what people were called by God to do. Jesus’ teachings were focused on correcting wrong beliefs about God and giving correct beliefs. His teaching centered around spiritual matters, which is the most important kind of teaching. Pastors should not primarily concern themselves with non-spiritual matters. All things can be spiritual, and all things can be a segway into something explicitly spiritual, but non-spiritual things should not be taught by pastors in a non-spiritual way. They should not concern themselves with those things.

Jesus rebuked individuals when on earth. Jesus did not only correct wrong ideas, but corrected people. Spiritual matters are extremely important, and when individuals did not understand them, Jesus corrected them. In the case of spiritual arrogance, Jesus corrected them harshly. He practiced (and taught on) the pastoral job of spiritually disciplining others. Discipline is not for the purpose of breaking someone down, but for breaking the chains that prevent someone from knowing God more fully, and in some cases breaking the chains that prevent an individual from knowing God at all. 

Jesus built up individuals personally. Jesus invested in many disciples, and twelve especially. He gave His time, energy, and expertise to those twelve disciples. They all (minus one) eventually went on to preach the gospel to the nations at Pentecost with Peter (one of the twelve disciples). Jesus spent time with his disciples, loved them, and most importantly served them. Jesus’ example of servant leadership to His disciples is the model for humility found in Philippians 2. This kind of personal building up through serving is expertly modeled in the self-giving love of Jesus for those who followed Him. 

Jesus gave gifts to edify the body. Through His Spirit, which lives in His body, Jesus gives many gifts. He gives gifts for the building up of His body. Jesus gives His body different gifts of love, faith, grace, healing, teaching, prophecy, and many other things for their edification. Jesus gives people the power and ability to build up the whole body of Christ through His own power. He seeks to share His power with people. The pastor must seek to platform other individuals in the church as well, and let them share in the building of the body of Christ alongside the pastors. 

Finally,Jesus practiced self care. In many parts during His ministry, Jesus retreated alone to the top of a mountain to pray. Jesus ate and drank, and Jesus slept. If anyone should be the most others-centered and determined to use every part of His day for ministry, it should be Jesus. However, He spent much time up on a mountain praying, much time eating and drinking, and much time sleeping. Additionally, Jesus did not even begin His preaching ministry until He was around 30 years old. He only lived to be around 33. If Jesus’ preaching ministry was made into a fraction, it would only be 1/11 of His total life. That is less than 10% of His life devoted to His recorded ministry. And for those last three years, Jesus spent much time eating, drinking, sleeping, and praying alone. Jesus knew He had to take care of Himself physically, spiritually, and mentally in order to take care of other people. The pastor who believes they can do a better job at ministry than Jesus by denying eating, sleeping, drinking, and praying alone is acting foolishly. All pastors need to follow in the example of Jesus. Additionally, Jesus observed the Sabbath, being a Torah adherent. Jesus did no real work for 1/7 of His life. He knew the advantage of rest, and rested well. He took care of Himself. Pastors must follow this example. 

Pastoring Today

Pastors today are not called to be very different from pastors back in the time of the New Testament. The requirements in the New Testament for elders still act as great guidelines for pastors today, as they are guidelines relating to character, not function-based behaviors. The pastors of yesterday, today, and tomorrow must be men of character. Pastors must focus more on who they are than what they do. When the pastor focuses on who they are, what they do will naturally follow as they seek to love others and grow in the Lord. With that being said, there are three especially important attributes of the character and desire of pastors today. Those are accountability, self care, and leading others to Christ. 

First, the pastor must be accountable. Being a spiritual leader does not mean a pastor will be free from sin. However, it does mean the pastor must be seriously fighting the effects of sin on their life. The way to do this is through accountability. Accountability forces the pastor to work on themself. If they are accountable but do not work on themself, they will be outed as someone who is not able to improve and is not suitable to lead the body of Christ. When the pastor is accountable they may be shown to have sin, but every Christian will have sin. Accountability shows that the pastor actually desires change in their life. Additionally, accountability will lead to a change in the pastor through the encouragement of other believers and the steps they give to sin rehabilitation. Accountability is a “must have” for pastors. 

The pastor must also be spiritually stable. The pastor must be willing to take time for his own spiritual walk with the Lord. If the pastor is not spiritually stable, how will they lead their congregation into spiritual stability, not being tossed to and fro by every changing doctrine? The pastor must be stable in their faith through taking time with the Lord. This is accomplished through the simple practices of self care and spiritual disciplines. This is not to say those two are separate. The pastor must be willing to take time for himself spiritually, mentally, and physically in order to foster a genuine relationship with the Lord. If they do not, they will eventually burn out from pouring themselves out without having anyone pouring in to them. The pastor must care for his own spirituality first in order to pour out to other people. 

Finally, the pastor must invest in others and help others to foster a genuine relationship with Christ. The pastor must be a spiritual leader to the people. All Christians are called to accountability and spiritual stability, but pastors are especially called to lead others in relationship with Christ. This is done through discipleship, which is the building up of others in the church. This can be done through strategically living life with those in the church. The pastor must be willing to learn how to lead spiritually and apply those principles. One of the most important principles of spiritual leadership is leading with a mission. The pastor should lead the individuals in the church with a mission, a plan for spiritual discipleship. The pastor must step up to their place of spiritual discipleship in the church.

Bibliography

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