cox-BiblicalPastorv2.pdf – This is a brief sermon (8 pgs) that presents many topics on this page. I will not reproduce this booklet on this page but make comments on sections instead.
A. Administration or Government (the office of Pastor)
B. Job Description of the Pastor
1. Feed the Sheep
2. Warn and Protect
3. Pastoral Watch Care
C. How does a man enter the office of Pastor?
D. Disqualification and removal
E. The Qualifications or Requirements of Pastor
A. Administration or Government (the office of Pastor)
Let’s start off by saying that some groups of people (individual churches, and particular groups like the Brethren, Mennonites, Anabaptists, some Bible Churches, etcetera) have a particular rejection of the office of pastor. I have visited and fellowship with some of these types of people in Bible churches (and an internet discussion group I participated in for a while), and they are good people basically. Their basic thinking is that pastors are unbiblical, so they establish a Presbyterian type of government on the premise of co-equal elders instead of a pastor.
Let me note here that for all the theory people put forth for co-equal elders, I have never once seen it actually in practice and functioning. I have seen churches with an elder board, but they always go back to a single elder being “in charge”. They shun the term “pastor” because supposedly it is tarnished with anti-biblical concepts, and in their opinion the term itself is in antibiblical, but the concept of a single elder being in charge still has to be imposed because chaos is what happens when things do not get channeled through a single source “at the top”.
Let’s note also that the word “pastor” is a biblical term. However you wish to consider it, it is not an unbiblical concept. The fact that there are a host of unbiblical pastors out there I do not for a second deny, but I cannot accept throwing out the “baby with the bathwater”. The term that God gave us to use is “pastor” we should use it. Concerning the abuses by pastors, this should become a matter of great concern for every pastor, and he should teach against the abuses of pastors even though he personally is not abusive.
We as pastors or those in oversight should be keenly aware of the marks of bad or poor ministers of the gospel as well as being well studied on the duties of those in oversight, and the warnings to us from God.
God’s warnings to those who are Pastors
The Biblical Defense for the Ministry of Oversight (Pastor)
B. Job Description of the Pastor
The tasks or job description of a biblical pastor falls basically into three categories.
The Ministry of Feeding God’s Sheep
Warning and Protecting God’s Sheep
This is the biblical picture of pastoral visitation. It is laughable to consider this and consider the great failure in cases of big churches with 1,000+ people. How can a pastor comply with his duty in caring individually for the sheep when the sheep fold grows so large? Real shepherds divide the fold, but in our competitive bigger is better age, we just close our eyes to our pastoral duty.
The bottom line here is, whatever is wrong spiritually in the church member’s life, the pastor visits the member and fixes what is wrong. The only reason why it is not fixed (over a long period of time) is because the member refuses the pastoral watch care that the pastor gives.
Biblical Watchcare “Visitation”
C. How does a man enter the office of Pastor?
D. Disqualification and removal
E. The Qualifications or Requirements of Pastor