I am going to write on the pastoral office, but this might be different from anything you have ever learnt. As such it might be quite shocking. Firstly we must lay down the basic foundation about the reality of Christ. This thing we call Christianity is not about doing religion. No, it is not a religion in the way the world perceive religion. It is a reality, a realm, a domain, a land, a kingdom. We must first of all understand this before we can proceed in anything Christian.
In Christ we have a reality that is based on life. Yes, everything in Christ is based on life. It all spring out of life, it follows the rules of life, it is organic. The way the body of Christ is designed is based on life, everything springs up organically. The moment we accept Jesus into our lives we were born into this reality as babies. Then we began to grow. The more you abide in Christ the faster you grow. Some people maybe born again for years but they don't abide in Christ, they are mostly living in the flesh, as such they remain babies.
There are some Christians that once they become born again they diligently try to abide in Christ and then they grow speedingly in the spirit. So it is not a matter of how long you have been born again. We have people at different stages in spiritual growth the same way we have people at different stages in physical growth. There are some that have grown mature and old, they are the elderly. So also, we have people who have attain such level of spiritual maturity that they become elders.
Elder is not a religious title that you give to honour certain people. It has nothing to even do with religion, it is a spiritual reality. You don't appoint people eldership, they grow into elders. They thrive in Christ and become mature, as such they are elders. Whether you recognize them as elders or not, it doesn't change the fact that they are elders. That is how it is in the natural world, whether you believe that someone is old or not, it doesn't change the fact that they are old.
According to the order of life, the more you grow old the more responsibility you take up. So in every ecclesia these elders will naturally become very responsible. They will naturally take upon themselves more responsibilities in the ecclesia. Now you become a pastor when the younger ones in faith begin to look up to you. Let's put in mind that all of these happens organically. The same way in the natural world the younger ones who desire the 'wisdom of the grey hair' will gather around the elders.
So these younger ones sees how graceful, righteous, humble, full of love, wise, etc. these elders are and they desire these things so they gather around them. They want to learn, they want to be mentored by these elders. As an elder (one who is already spiritually mature) you become a pastor when certain younger Christian begin to submit themselves to you in order to be mentored. Being a pastor is not about having a church or going to theology school. It is about having certain fruit of maturity that the younger ones desire to also grow into.
You see how a Christian organically grows into an elder, and as an elder he begins to take up responsibilities. The younger believers begins to submit to him, he earns a reputation and others naturally ascribe honour and respect to him as a result of his spiritual maturity and virtue. Yes, the process is all organic, no human hands involved uttering thing. It has to be organic, that is the law of life.
Let's call the Christian Ben. So when Ben grow to some level of maturity he organically becomes an elder whether he is recognized as such or not. And when Ben, because of his level of maturity, begins to take up responsibilities in the ecclesia, he becomes a bishop. When others begin to see him as a mentor and they submit to him, respect and honour him, then Ben becomes a pastor. The whole process is organic, it has to be organic, for that is the order of life. We need to remove this religious mentality and start treating the things of Christ as life, for Christ is the life, and anything pertaining to Christ is life so it follows the organic process.
No matter how skilled a farmer is, you cannot plant a seed today and use your hands to organize it and make it bear harvest that same day. You will just have to wait for the natural process of life. You cannot deep a log of wood into the ground, nail branches on it and then ordain it as a tree. All you will have is a dead thing, that is why our Christianity today is so dead. We don't want to wait for the natural process of life, we bring our dirty hands and meddle with everything. We are just busy doing this religious thing that is so dead.
The truth is that the ecclesias in the first century didn't have elders, bishops or pastors for years. Paul planted ecclesias and leave them like that for years only to come back later to check if anybody have developed into an elder. If nobody has developed into an elder he will leave it like that, and maybe later send Timothy to go check and appoint elders. The whole idea of appointing elders/bishops/pastors is just in order to make it official. It happens organically, and then it is officially recognized so that everyone can be aware
Another reason why the elders have to be officially appointed is because apart from good virtues, another thing that could make one attractive and prominent is charisma. Yes, an immature believer can come with a lot of charisma and then the younger ones are just so blown away by his charisma that they begin to gather around him, making him their mentor and learning bad things from him. In order to prevent this from happening the true elders, the true model of maturity, must be recognized so that the younger ones will not be misled.
The charismatic movement today is mostly about an immature believer with charisma, coming to wow the people, and the people become so enchanted that they begin to follow him and imitate his immaturity. They will honour and support their pastors despite all his obvious flaws. They even begin to worship the man, and as such become blind and deaf to truth. It's just the sad reality of our Christianity today.
This post is part of a series. Below are links to the other posts in the series.
The Pastoral Office (2); Elder, Bishop, Pastor
The Pastoral Office (3); Church Vs Ecclesia
The Pastoral Office (4); Comparing The Practices In Different Centuries
The Pastoral Office (5); The Apostolic Workers
The Pastoral Office (6); Was Timothy The Bishop Of Ephesus
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