My Brother’s Keeper
By far, most of the people employed by American congregations in positions called “The Pastor” do not have the spiritual gift of pastor. The ones who do suffer frequent insults and complaints about how boring their sermons are, because having the spiritual gift of pastor means by default they do not have the gift of teacher.
No congregation described in the New Testament was led by “The Pastor.” We got that model through the work of Martin Luther, who was tasked with the work of redesigning what the Church of Rome had corrupted beyond recognition. Luther was convinced that every believer needed to be equipped for ministry. He could not imagine getting them all through the process of college and seminary, though. He was convinced that they were all part of the priesthood of Christ, but he could not imagine them being able to properly pray as priests when they could not read the Scriptures. He couldn’t get all of the corruption cleared enough from his mind to start over without some of it still in place. They just needed to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus and given opportunity and encouragement to manifest Him.
What he settled for was to gather them into groups led by shepherds (“pastors”). So, every congregational leader was a pastor, without regard for what spiritual gift the Holy Spirit had in mind for them. Depending on what gift they might actually have, though, the pastors shepherd their flocks, the prophets scare them, and the teachers teach them, but don’t pastor them. And that’s just 3 gifts of 27 or more mentioned in the New Testament.
You might be a pastor. I mean, you may have the gift of pastor. Stanley Jones said there was a Japanese believer who put a sign up near a popular location for suicides: “Wait a moment! God is love! Anyone contemplating suicide may come to Mrs. Nobu Jo, and she has help for you.” Over five thousand would-be suicides saw that sign and went to her and found Life. She was a pastor. Not because she was employed by a congregation who had simply replaced Roman priests with German pastors, though. She had the gift, whether she had a job or not.
If your first response to hearing of someone’s failure is compassion and a desire to take the broken-legged sheep into your pen and feed and heal it, that indicates pastor might be your gift. If your first thought, instead, is that they need to be educated regarding the truths of Scripture, you might be a teacher. If your first thought is that they need to be set free from sin that trapped them into their dilemmas, you might be a prophet. Again, that’s just 3 of many possibilities.
You are somebody, though. If you have not yet discovered what sort of keeper you are intended by your Father to be to your brothers and sisters, today might be a great day to ask and be blessed with that answer. Then, bless us with the real-ization of it. Thank you!