Since leaving the Pastor Moses’ church organisation, Luke has been discovering some amazing realities in his own faith walk. One of his greatest revelations is how Jesus is his pastor. Eric finds this ludicrous, because, to Eric, if you are a pastor then you must have the official title ‘Pastor‘ and should expect everyone to address you as ‘Pastor‘. This of course automatically disqualified Jesus from being a pastor.
Luke also finds it interesting that Jesus seemed to go out of his way to inform the early disciples to watch out for men who use titles such as ‘rabbi‘ or ‘father’ to gain a higher spiritual standing. Jesus said we should rather realise that we are all equal, all brothers, and only Jesus himself is our rabbi, our father, our pastor, our everything. Of course, Eric finds these thoughts completely foolish. Go figure.
Luke is really trying to figure out why, if Jesus was so against titles, is Pastor Moses, Eric and so many others in the church placing so much value in them?
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“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.” Words of Jesus – Matthew 23:5-10
just had this conversation at a board mtg 2 weeks ago…it was not taken well by those in attendance.
“you cannot forget the 5 fold ministry, crista!” i was told.
i am all for varying gifts and ministries…i just choose not to elevate any one over another. they are for equipping the saints, but what we have is spoon fed babies in the pews because they think they can only get fed by the “pastor”. that’s crippling, not equipping : /
Paul introduced himself often as an apostle, contended for his place of responsibility in the church, especially with the Corinthians and Galatian churches, and taught about spiritual leadership offices in Ephesians 4 and I Corinthians 12. So saying Jesus only is our pastor, teacher, etc. is not Biblically accurate. All that being said, I’m not into men taking positions that are not assigned to them or putting titles before their names to gain leverage with others.
I think though that Paul did that in response to others doing it before him. He defended himself because he was seen as weak by the ‘establishment’ preachers and basically said: Don’t you realize that loving in weakness has more authority than establishing an authority based on strength – like the world.
So true, so true!
A title is a symbol of status to prove your hard work (accomplishments) and the focus is back to man’s ability in stead of God’s ability.
Since leaving the Pastor Moses’ church organisation, Luke has been discovering some amazing realities in his own faith walk. One of his greatest revelations is how Jesus is his pastor. Eric finds this ludicrous, because, to Eric, if you are a pastor then you must have the official title ‘Pastor‘ and should expect everyone to address you as ‘Pastor‘. This of course automatically disqualified Jesus from being a pastor.
Luke also finds it interesting that Jesus seemed to go out of his way to inform the early disciples to watch out for men who use titles such as ‘rabbi‘ or ‘father’ to gain a higher spiritual standing. Jesus said we should rather realise that we are all equal, all brothers, and only Jesus himself is our rabbi, our father, our pastor, our everything. Of course, Eric finds these thoughts completely foolish. Go figure.
Luke is really trying to figure out why, if Jesus was so against titles, is Pastor Moses, Eric and so many others in the church placing so much value in them?
————-
“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.” Words of Jesus – Matthew 23:5-10
just had this conversation at a board mtg 2 weeks ago…it was not taken well by those in attendance.
“you cannot forget the 5 fold ministry, crista!” i was told.
i am all for varying gifts and ministries…i just choose not to elevate any one over another. they are for equipping the saints, but what we have is spoon fed babies in the pews because they think they can only get fed by the “pastor”. that’s crippling, not equipping : /
Paul introduced himself often as an apostle, contended for his place of responsibility in the church, especially with the Corinthians and Galatian churches, and taught about spiritual leadership offices in Ephesians 4 and I Corinthians 12. So saying Jesus only is our pastor, teacher, etc. is not Biblically accurate. All that being said, I’m not into men taking positions that are not assigned to them or putting titles before their names to gain leverage with others.
I think though that Paul did that in response to others doing it before him. He defended himself because he was seen as weak by the ‘establishment’ preachers and basically said: Don’t you realize that loving in weakness has more authority than establishing an authority based on strength – like the world.
So true, so true!
A title is a symbol of status to prove your hard work (accomplishments) and the focus is back to man’s ability in stead of God’s ability.