This question asks “Why does the church need pastors, and what are pastors supposed to do?”  One reason why this question is sometimes raised, and why a small portion of Christian churches do not have ordained ministers, is that the Bible speaks so strongly about the Holy Spirit’s ministry for all believers.  We believe that, according to Scripture, every Christian can understand God’s Word with the Holy Spirit’s help.  1 John 2:27 even says, “The anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you.”  Therefore, it is thought by some, it is wrong to appoint full-time teachers or to give spiritual authority to any persons in the church.

So why do we have pastors?  The answer is that we are keeping the clear and overwhelming teaching of the New Testament.  It is clear that when the apostles founded churches, they established groups of elders to oversee the church – this is why we ordain a plurality of elders to spiritually govern local and regional church bodies.  An example is Titus 1:5, where Paul tells Titus, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.”  But, you might observe, this does not mean that elders should be set aside for full-time church work or that they should be paid for doing so.  But other passages give these very instructions.
 
First, it is evident that some elders are to be set aside to devote themselves to teaching.  Paul writes, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Tim. 5:17).  This is the logic behind titles of honor, such as “reverend,” since the Bible says, “Respect those who labor among you in the Lord and admonish you, and esteem them very highly in love because of their work” (1 Thes. 5:12-13).  Moreover, those set apart to teach and minister in the church are to receive their material sustenance from that work.  Consider Paul’s instruction to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?  In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:13-14).  He wrote to Timothy, “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages’” (1 Tim. 5:18).

It is evident from these descriptions that the primary duty of pastors is to teach the Word of God.  Doing this well is a full-time job, and a pastor is to devote himself to the study of God’s Word and to prayer, so as ably to teach the Bible.   This was the apostles’ own example.  The office of deacon was established to take care of temporal concerns in the church.  Peter explained, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables… We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:2, 4).  These remain the duty of pastors today, along with providing spiritual leadership to individuals and to the corporate body.  Paul’s instructions to Timothy constitute a good pastoral job description today: “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13).  Some will observe that not all ordained pastors preach.  In a larger church, it is bound to be the case that a senior pastor will have assistants, some of whom may have some administrative functions.  But those recognized as holding the office of pastor should never merely serve as administrators, but should always be involved in the teaching of God’s Word, the administration of the sacraments (which goes with the teaching office), and the shepherding of God’s flock.

A church needs not only faithful pastors but also discerning elders, deacons, and lay-people.  That was John’s point when he reminded his people that they did not need teachers so much that they could not discern truth and recognize false teachers.  The most fruitful pattern is for faithful ministers and faithful church members to labor together for the blessing of Christ’s church.  Paul combines these in the important statement of church practice in Ephesians 4:11-12: “[Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastor/teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”  The church needs faithful pastors to shepherd and teach so that the members will become mature in their faith and join together for the ministries that build the church.

Rev. Richard Phillips is the chair of the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology and senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church Coral Springs, Margate, Florida

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