Churches: Pastors

Telos Center

January 17, 2018

God calls and commands all people to trust and follow him, and then he specifically guides some of the Christian men to serve him as a pastor among areas and local churches. A Christian pastor is a man who serves God and others with a purpose and role to oversee and train people to entrust and live the entirety of their life following the God-man and Christ -- Jesus. He, Jesus, is the epicenter of God's revelation, God the Father's redemption, and God the Holy Spirit's transformation of people to trust and follow.

God has described and instructed pastors throughout scripture in various ways from metaphors to plain language clearly entitling and explaining what they are to believe, be, and do. When we contextually read and interpret scripture, we are able to gather these passages together in order to summarize and outline what God wants for pastors. And so, we are able to understand how, when, and why God trains these Christian men to serve as pastors among people. Therefore, God's word and pattern of transformation throughout history helps us to train and identify men to pastor, which is important so as to avoid going beyond or changing what God has planned.

These men overall are to be Christians who are humbled to trust Christ with the entirety of their life, transformed by God to live beloved by him, and living friendly to the world around them. These men are then living with the life mission inspired by truth and love to make life, disciples, and churches all about Jesus (vs. themselves, family, money, platform, spiritual gift, a 'ministry', politics, church, religion, anti-religion, etc.). These men are real and relational. They have learned to listen. They've learned to trust and fear (be in awe or impressed by) the Lord. They've learned and growing in grace and wisdom. They've learned God's natural world as well as discerning and being patient with the world's imperfection, brokenness, sin, and evil. They are men who have lived and experienced life relationships. These men are workers. These men are convictional and courageous in following Christ. They are men are unconcerned for title, position, or role and guide people in real life to follow Christ. They are motivated by God, the gospel, truth, and love in which they steward life accordingly.

Therefore, pastors are trained to fight the good fight of faith to train people in truth and love where they are inspired to make life, disciples, and churches all about Jesus.

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Churches: Pastors are Fighters

Pastors are called and trained to fight. The type of fight is different fight. This is not a physical fight though it includes the physical world. This is not a argumentative or quarreling fight though it includes arguments and courageous "holding fast" to truth and love. They are led to fight for and against something, rather, someone. The "noble task" Paul tells Timothy is difficult because the world is broken and the pastoring people is not easy. Therefore, this is a unique fight that Paul commands the young pastor Timothy to do, "Fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12)."

Churches: Pastors are Trainers

These are the pastoral tasks for trained up pastors. There are several interpretations on 'tasks' or what a pastor 'does'. Sometimes the tyranny of the urgent takes over and leads the way (such as life phase, time, money, other life pressures), but pastors are trainers, otherwise known as equippers or shepherds. Metaphorically and naturally, shepherds equip sheep to live by training them primarily to trust the one they are to listen to. While training them to listen and believe, they also guide them practically through specifics. Therefore, pastors are to train or equip people to believe in the chief shepherd of God the Son, Jesus the Christ, to live and follow him in real life.

Churches: Pastors are Trained

These are the biblical qualifications for Christian pastors, trained up to desire and fulfill the task of pastoring. Therefore, we establish who God the Father, Son, and Spirit is. Then we learn what Christian means. Then we learn what it means to be a Christian pastor. Without the fundamentals, we will be fundamentally off and become fundamentally weird and wrong.

Churches: Pastors