BLOG 5/23/17. THE GIFT OF THE PASTOR-TEACHER
In the key passage on the essential components of disciple-making (Ephesians 4:10-14), or those gifts that bring all of God’s people into their maturity, and into the ministry to which they are called as God’s New Creation people, … I have spoken in the recent Blogs about the first three listed, those of apostle, prophet, and evangelist, and of my interpretation of those, but the fourth listed deserves a bit of special attention. It is the gift (a hyphenated designation) of pastor-teacher. It deserves special attention, since one of the subversions of ‘Christendom’ was to create a sacralized class of persons known as ‘clergy’ and set them apart as the pastors (shepherds) and teachers, and to call them ‘reverend’ (even i they had never been fruitful in disciple-making) … and in so doing to miss the whole point of this key passage, as one of the four gifts necessary if the church is to be faithful in its disciple-making ministry mandated to the church, … and which mission is the responsibility of all of those whom Jesus calls to himself.
The mention of this gift is also one of the few places in the apostolic writings where the word pastor is used, which word is actually defining of a shepherd, one who is responsible for the care and protection of the sheep. Here, interestingly enough, it is linked with that of the teacher, which inevitably points us to the necessity of an intelligent grasp of the life and teachings of Jesus. In the apostolic (New Testament) writings, knowledge is such a critical element. Romans 8 says that part of God’s irresistible purpose in calling people to himself is to renew them in knowledge so that they are conformed to the image of Christ.
Jesus taught that it was those who had his words, and did them, who were like those who built their houses on a rock. Knowledge and praxis. Equipping God’s people in this incarnational demonstration of Jesus’ New Creation is the role of the teaching-shepherd. But, somehow this also is a ministry of mutual accountability within the colonies of God’s New Humanity. Paul told he Colossian Christians that they were to have the Word of Christ dwelling among them richly as they taught and admonished one another (Colossians 3:16). There were no ‘clergy’ and yet as is always true in a healthy Christian community, there are those who are the more mature in knowledge and example and wisdom, who rise to the top in leadership. They became the elders, one qualification of which was that he/she was “able to teach.”
It also became obvious that some within in the community never got the message, and were “ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (like always going to Bible studies, but never making disciples of others!). The writer to the Hebrew chides those, who when they ought to be teachers of others still need to be taught again and again, and seem to be dull of hearing and continually immature, and thus ineffective in the mission of God. They are those, who like the Dead Sea, are always receiving the living water, but it is dead-ended and becomes stagnant and non-life-giving. The teaching-shepherd is the one who informs, models, and prods when necessary, so that all become mature in knowledge, as well as in their evangelistic, prophetic, and apostolic roles.
The word of Christ is to be so formative in the disciple that he or she is contagious with it, and engaged joyously in the mission of God. II Peter 1:2-4 (a hidden jewel) says it all: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may [note] be partakers of the divine nature …”
So, therefore, these four gifts, all critical components of becoming mature in our calling to be the fruitful, contagious, faithful followers of Jesus—building our houses on the rock.
