What is the Pastor’s Role in the Local Church?

I am amazed at how few congregations truly understand their role as well as the role of their pastor according to Scripture. Of course, I have to wonder how many pastors understand the roles according to Scripture? Which, of course, leads me to wonder, if the pastors do understand their Scriptural role and are preaching and working to implement that into their church, then why are there so many churches operating in an un-Scriptural manner?

Let me clarify what Scripture teaches about these specific roles in the local church. Paul stated very clearly in Ephesians 4:11-13 what these roles are when he said: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

There are three different common methods churches have when establishing the roles of the pastor and the congregation. The first, being the most common, is the idea that the pastor is hired and paid to do the ministry work of the church. Most of these have a board that administrates, a pastor that does everything else and a congregation that shows up and occupies a pew. These church situations tend to have a few handpicked, overworked individuals that do the things that need to be done around the church like kitchen work, Sunday school teachers, etc. But, by and large the congregation is there as spectators. Churches stuck in this situation will be difficult to lead forward in any progressive way.

The second method is that the people assist the pastor in doing his duties and carrying out his ministry. Certainly, this is better than idea one as there is more opportunity for individuals to find some involvement within the working of the church. However, the ability of the church to minister to a broad range of needs remains very limited as the pastor has his mission and those who he tends to focus upon and in so doing leads the congregation to do likewise.

The third method is where the pastor helps the congregation to develop their own ministries according to their own giftings and talents. In this method, every member becomes a minister. When every member is fulfilling their role according to their giftings the church is reaching and benefiting a much larger segment of society. If you were to compare these three methods to Ephesians 4, it would be easy to recognize method three as the Scriptural method.

What about your church? What about your role? Are you being encouraged to fulfill your ministry giftings within your church? If not, then why not?