Okay, so this one might sound iffy at first, but stay with me.
Let’s say you’re going to start a “church”, an organized fellowship that meets in a building for purposes of worship. Traditionally, there are several things that need to happen, may of which we’ve already discussed.
One thing that generally happens is that a pastor or a committee or the elders or some institution of leadership sees a couple specific needs and they think, “we need to hire a pastor for that.” For instance, two of the main positions sought are a “worship leader” or “music minister” and a “youth pastor.” There are other positions that come up as “needs.” Associate pastor, children’s pastor, administrative pastor, young adult’s pastor, and others are all necessary and even assumed as a fellowship grows.
Here’s my point. I don’t find any of these specific positions mentioned anywhere in the Bible.
Now, as usual, when I say something like that, people get immediately defensive and try to make excuses. We’ll get to those in a moment, but bear with me. I know some of you reading this are in such positions or have been and there are a lot of perceptions and traditions associated with such things.
I’ll be so bold as to say it would be difficult to support a head pastor, the most common one of all, as a biblical position.
Again, as with many of these TICFITB, with something so common and assumed in the Body of Christ, shouldn’t we find some evidence or expression of it in the scripture? I believe that we should.
The only two actual positions we find in the New Testament concerning the Church are the Bishop and the Elder, both described in Timothy, although mentioned other places. Their roles were wide in scope and relational in nature, usually several of each per fellowship. These weren’t administrative positions meant to do the work of ministry while everyone else showed up. They were leaders and guides and facilitators more than anything, which was why their character was their most important feature and not their education.
You could stretch other things as positions in the Church from the scripture, like apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and pastors. But again, these were more based on gift and function than pure administrative or organizational titles. Paul even rebuked the Corinthian believers when they were arguing over who had more authority over them … Paul made it clear that neither he nor Apollos were anything but vessels used by God. They belonged to Christ.
Even so, these things don’t especially support the need for a pastor over a certain group of people. I’m going to primarily be using the youth pastor position to make my point here for two reasons. First, its one of the most common percieved “needs” and second, it is a clear representation of the segregation that takes place because of these positions.
I’ve heard the reasons in many a committee meeting. “We have youth without a pastor. They need a pastor!” I knew one well meaning mother who wept at the thought of no youth pastor at the Church. She even begged me to take the position, even though she didn’t really like me all that much. She didn’t know how her children could grow in Christ without one.
Is that tragic to anyone else but me?
We have this modern mentality that the way to minister to people is to put them in a room of people in a similar life situation (usually by marital status and/or age) and then expect them to grow that way. Then we are confused as to why divorce rates don’t go down and young people leave the church in droves once they hit 19 or 20 years old.
Many youth pastors have admitted to me that the youth in their program that were just on fire and/or committed during their teen years largely fell away from their fellowship once they hit their college years, many completely blowing off fellowship with other Christians. Many of those who blew off “church” when they were 16 become leaders in a fellowship somewhere in college or their mid twenties. I’ve seen it myself.
Everyone’s an individual, sure, and these are only general patterns, but they have been observed as true.
What has consistently worked in most young people, however, both statistically and from my own experience, has been giving them an adult mentor at a young age that gave them an intimate relationship with someone older and much wiser. We commonly call this discipleship. When a young person has an intimate relationship with an older believer, they are called into maturity at an overwhelming pace. This is called “fathering” and “mothering” in the faith. A young man needs an older man to help him, guide him, befriend him, and encourage him in the faith. A young woman needs the same from an older woman. How can hanging out with people your own age ever mature you? You become young adults who only know how to be 16 and in a youth class that does more to entertain you than teach you, and you become disillusioned with church.
If mentored, discipled, or fathered or mothered by those more mature in the faith, then you see yourself as part of the family of God then, not waiting until you grow up, and see a real life example of a common believer reaching out instead of sitting and waiting to be given to and ministered to on their level.
Are specific ministry positions wrong? I don’t think they are, just not in the Bible and therefore misguided when we put such mammoth expectations upon them, as if we can use a corporate marketing model to do the work required within discipleship and the Holy Spirit. And when things are a little off, things don’t function the way they should and we cause more problems than we are solving.
I also don’t see the wisdom in the segregation of the Body of Christ, nor do I see it anywhere in the scripture. One of the strengths of the Body should be the diversity among those that meet together, people of different cultures and age groups and other places in their life living out the example that it is the Spirit that draws us as a family and not our superficial commonalities.
Hear this encouragement before I close. Whether or not you have a title or not, you are needed in the Body of Christ. You should actively seek out those to have relationship with and disciple and be discipled, all using our gifts in real ways that truly impact people instead of patting ourselves on the back for who attended our program.
Peace.