What would church look like without pastors?

This morning, our pastor was teaching out of Ephesians 4.  This got me to thinking about the role of pastors in our society today.  In my opinion, we have expected too much out of them, expecting them to the be Christians we don’t want to take the time to be.  This limits our growth as disciples of Christ by not allowing ourselves to come to full maturity in Christ.

The Christian life is a journey.  It is a journey of learning to live as a disciple of Christ and this includes coming to full maturity in Christ.  This will look differently for each disciple because of our life circumstances, our unique giftings and the roles that the Holy Spirit gives us within God’s creation.

What we can discern about being a disciple of Christ is that it is not an easy road, but is a road that requires help along the way.  We need help from God to overcome our own fallen nature.  Too often we get in our own way.  Each of us has our own set up baggage that we bring to our relationship with our Creator.  To overcome that baggage, we need to come to our Creator with humility asking for his help to overcome our self-inflicted wounds.  My study of Scripture helps me to see a God who wants to come alongside his creation to help them overcome the obstacles they cannot overcome with their own power and strength.  Sometimes the help that God brings comes out of the life of the community of faith.

Pastors, teachers, elders, etc.  are called for the purpose of cultivating disciples.  Their role within the community of faith is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” and for “building up the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12)  They are called to the task of making disciple and preparing them to participate in the ministry of Christ.  Additionally, they are called to encourage, strengthen and unify the body of Christ.  Their work is not complete until community of faith has reach full maturity and is able to participate fully in the ministry of Christ.

Pastors should strive to work themselves out of a job.  One of my old mentors used to teach me this.  He desired to see the day when he would not be need, as the men and women he discipled became fully equipped to participate in the ministry of Christ.  This makes the task of making disciples the primary focus of pastoral ministry.  It should be the goal of all professional disciples to equip those entrusted to them for the ministry of Christ.  When this happens maybe we can start to really wonder what the church would look like without pastors?

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