The words for “leader” in Greek are ἄρχων (archōn) and ἡγούμενος (hēgoumenos), translated “rulers” and “leaders” in your Bibles, and refer to secular leadership but not church leaders, with the exception of Hebrews (13:7, 17, 24). Instead of the word “leader,” what Paul does is discuss various leadership roles or pastoral activities using other terms like:
I’ve arranged these 12 terms for pastoral leadership into 4 semantic domains or umbrella categories.
1) The Preacher
•
minister / servant (Greek διάκονος or diakonos)
•
preacher (Greek κηρύσσων or kēryssōn)
• evangelist (Greek εὐαγγελιστής or euangelistēs)
•
teacher (Greek διδασκάλος or didaskalos):
|
2) The Pastor
•
overseer (Greek ἐπίσκοπος or episkopos)
•
elder (Greek πρεσβύτερος or presbyteros)
•
mentor/imitation (Greek μιμητής or mimētēs) and spiritual
father/mother (Greek πατήρ or patēr;
μητήρ or mētēr)
•
shepherd /pastor (Greek ποιμήν or poimēn) where through the Vulgate/patristic writers we get the Latin word pastor
•
slave/servant of God and the church
(Greek δοῦλος or doulos)
|
3) The Prophet
•
prophet (Greek προφήτης or prophētēs)
x apostle?
(Greek ἀπόστολος or apostolos):
But apostleship was a unique office to the
1st century church alone.
|
4) The Priest
•
priest or priestly minister/servant
(Greek λειτουργός or leitourgos)
•
administrator (Greek οἰκονόμος or oikonomos) of the mysteries/sacraments (Greek
word μυστήριον or mystērion). μυστήριον is translated sacramentum in Latin
|
But let’s call
the semantic domains something like the 4 ministerial roles, offices, even ministerial “functions” or responsibilities of the Christian leader. I call them the 4P’s
of church leadership. Leaders 1) preach, 2) they pastor or
shepherd or care for the flock, 3) they prophetically challenge the church and discern
what God is doing in our midst, and 4) they do their priestly
duties, administering the sacraments, standing in the gap between
God and suffering, but much more. So 4P’s: preacher, pastor, prophet, and
priest, but it is arguably the role of the pastor or shepherd which functions as the core and
unites all the other roles and responsibilities of leadership.
I'm thankful that so many pastors, Christian leaders, former students, colleagues and friends at Midwinter appreciated the morning session I taught. Paul sometimes gets a bad wrap among scholars as too authoritarian. But this is really a modern pet-peeve. The solution to bad authority in the secular world is not no-authority in the church but the right use of authority that edifies and redeems. In fact, the more I study Paul, the more I am convicted that he was a premier pastor of the church whose teachings and practices can inform and form our present-day ministerium to become faithful servants of Christ and His body.
I am thinking that eventually this session can evolve into a small book on Paul as Pastor. We shall see. I have to finish my other book projects first. In the meanwhile, one of the most helpful resources on a pastoral theology remains the one written by the late Thomas Oden. His Pastoral Theology (1983) is a classic and still the best on the topic:
 |
| Still the best work on a pastoral theology available for the scholars, pastors and leaders RIP Thomas Oden |
