PROPER PERSPECTIVE PERTAINING TO PASTORS

“Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Pet. 5:2, 3). Two things are in view here pertaining to pastors. The first is, that there is an oversight and influence in every church that belongs to the pastor exclusively and is consistent with and essential to their feeding and leading the flock of God. And It is the duty of pastors to make sure that they have taken this spiritual oversight.

Secondly, pastors are never to think of themselves or act as if they are “Lords over God’s heritage.”  Churches are not intended to become a pastor’s private fiefdom, with himself the lord of the manor. Pastors are to think of themselves as servants to their flocks, not as sovereigns; as “labourers together,” with their flocks and with God (1 Cor. 3:9), not as lords over the people they pastor.

In Matthew, chapter 20, Jesus called his disciples together in special session to make clear to them what their position was and wasn’t: “Jesus said to  them, “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (vv. 25-28). From this we learn that the lording it over and bullying and browbeating of people, however unintentionally, intentionally or ignorantly—however subtly or blatantly—it is done constitutes an abuse of position and authority. It is not the way faithful pastors behave or think. It is the way heathens think and behave.

In Acts 20:28 Paul addressed the elders (the spiritual leaders) in the church at Ephesus with these words: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Then he said: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (vv. 29, 30).

The times we are living in, and our need for revival make it more urgent than ever that men in the ministry and churches “abstain from all appearance” (1 Thess. 5:22) of either asserting or accepting pastoral overreach and ministerial despotism. It is sin.