Priests are not, in and of themselves, pastors or helpers or counselors or social workers or nice people. They are sacrificers. What has the priesthood of all believers got to do with abolishing the office of pastor?

– Fr. Sean Lotz, priest and pastor

Do you have quotes for that? Because I haven’t seen anyone say anything like that. In fact, I have a problem with the idea of a unitary Pastor in the modern sense precisely because there are a variety of gifts. Not all are apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, etc…so why do we want to wrap that all up in one impossible job description? Yes, Jesus is the Good Pastor, our one teacher…so why arrogate his job to ourselves?

Leadership is important, and is a gift given to some for the sake of the whole body. Teaching is important, and is a gift given to some for the sake of the whole body. Counseling is important, and is a gift given to some for the sake of the whole body. Why pile all these things and more onto one person’s shoulders, denying the opportunity for all in the church to use their gifts, as well as letting them off the hook for their callings?

You said: (#14) “I think we can agree that there are at least two categories within the NT church according to Paul—leaders and followers.” Actually, he describes in 1 Corinthians 12 this :”27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.” And contextually, it is implied in that chapter and elsewhere that there are other gifts too.
The problem with the current role of “Pastor” in the modern protestant sense is that the person conferred with the title pastor (and that IS what we are discussing, not what a true “pastor” should be) is expected to be a teacher, and a prophet, and an administrator, and a miracle worker, and a counselor, and one who helps others. We place in the current pastorship the expectation to do nearly everything for the church. A pastor should be a shepherd: one who tends to the flock, keeping it from wandering away, helping it grow. The best way to do that is to find and train others in their spiritual gifts.

The problem isn’t with the pastor as the Bible describes it, it is with what we have made it. The pastor should pastor, not everything else, and not working 90 hours a week to do it.

Milton: True enough, John, and you cannot tell me in fact that any single house church had a solitary pastor in the modern sense.

Thanks for laying out a pastoral theology. In “Pagan Christianity” the idea is established that the term “pastor” is an obscure word used only one time to refer to a leadership position and is without context. i had never thought about it before and it did shake me a bit. i wondered if we used the term simply because it was so vague. Yet your work “Jesus the Pastor” and this clarification help put the term in its larger perspective. This was helpful because i truly did wonder what the role of a “pastor” was and if it was every really biblically defined.