Chuck Sackett, preaching minister (at least, that's the title he's apparently settled on for now) has an interesting article in The Christian Standard on what he should be called. Among the independent Christian Churches, many -- perhaps most -- congregations have come to call their minister "pastor." This follows the general Protestant tradition. Churches I had contact with in the midwest most often just called the man who preached the "minister." When I attended the North American Christian Convention in 2000 I was a little bewildered by the array of august titles used by the main speakers to identify themselves.
The a cappella Churches of Christ aren't immune to this "titular confusion." While attending Harding School of Biblical Studies I had to stifle a laugh one day as, in a class on the New Testament Church, our professor criticized "the denominations" for using unscriptural titles like reverend and pastor. I thought to myself, what about "pulpit minister"? This term can hardly be considered scriptural (funny that folks who worry so much about whether first century churches used musical instruments in worship never questioned the use of a pulpit), and it always created odd impressions in my mind of a person trying to minister to an inanimate object (no, I don't mean the parishioners!).
Now, I've written about this topic before, and my position hasn't really changed much since that post. In the Scriptures I see the terms "elder/bishop/pastor/overseer/presbyter" etc (depending on your translation) used interchangeably. Separately, there are deacons, and possibly deaconesses. Lastly, there may be (I really think there is) a third category, the "evangelist."
Trouble with this is that most people don't recognize Timothy and Titus as "evangelists." They are commonly considered "pastors," though they are never called that in Scripture. Then again, neither is specifically called "evangelist" either.
In the future I hope to flesh out some of my understanding on this topic here, but understand that I don't consider any answers written in stone. Though I'm pretty confident about there being a co-equal role in Pauline ecclesiology for evangelists and elders (that sort of statement can raise the ire of some folks), it also seems fairly obvious that Paul's perspective was never universally accepted in the early church. The monarchical episcopate developed relatively early in church history.
Click here to read Mr. Sackett's, "Who Am I?" If anyone wants to send feedback to him directly, he provided his e-mail address at the end of the article.
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See also: Don't Call Me "Pastor"
From reading both Mr. Sackett's article and your own blog earlier post, it seems to me that the real problem isn't so much what to call the minister, but how to keep people from adding unnecessary and unhealthy connotations to the title. And the thing there is, you'll never find a title that won't lend itself to unnecessary and unhealthy connotations.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, I think the best one can hope for is to choose a title and then spend as much time and energy as necessary to educate (endlessly, I'm afraid) people on what the job really is and isn't about.
Jarred,
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid you're right. It really bugs me, though, how some folks keep vying for the "best" title. Conventions and gatherings where speakers refer to themselves as Pastor-Teacher and -- ugg -- Apostle really turn me off. It also irks me to be called by a title. My parents gave me a first name, and maybe if I use it it'll help keep me humble.
It really bugs me, though, how some folks keep vying for the "best" title.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. It seems to be an all-too-common problem, and not just in Christianity. The irony of it all, though, is that it's been my experience that those who seem most deserving of such titles seem to have little use for them.
This is interesting, I remember recently at FHU that I was using minister as a title for the man preaching and I was involved that this was incorrect. Sometimes we make too much of a deal over this, language changes, I just am happy if the people are not calling me names.
ReplyDelete