Besides preaching, what are the pastoral gifts, anyway?
The ubiquitous Ephesian 4:11,12, which is always trotted out to describe the five-fold ministry of the church, in which we find the pastor's office listed, doesn't help much in defining the duties that attend the office. To quote (I'll use the NIV):
"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."
The implication of the passage seems to be that each of the five offices has been given to the church for purpose of preparing God's people for works of service. But what distinguishes one office from another? How, if at all, are the responsibilities of an evangelist different from those of a pastor, for example?
At the risk of causing folks eyes to glaze over, perhaps it helps to look at the original language of this New Testament passage for more understanding. The Greek word translated "pastor" in this passage means "herdsman" or "shepherd." This implies howPaul thought this office should perform: as a shepherd of a "flock" of believers. Using this model, we can envision the pastor's responsibilities as feeding, nurturing, leading, and protecting.
The metaphorical description of believers as sheep is the core of that excellent and popular book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 : I thought the author did a masterful job with his juxtaposition of the flock of God and the flock of sheep. Short-sighted, stubborn, easily frightened, often helpless... we bleat complaints, we wander away, we pick upparasitic "infestations," we attract predators... there are so many unflattering comparisons that can be made between laymen and these dumb animals.
Now, the keeper of natural sheep is a servant to his flock... he finds them grazing land and water, he delouses their coats and ministers to their injuries, he fights off their predators. But the shepherd also has a staff to guide the sheep back into line... and a rod with a hook to pull an errant sheep out of the mire. He's a caregiver and a disciplinarian, if you will. In that a shepherd is a biblical model of church leadership, I think it fair for a "pastor" to reflect all of the attributes of a sheep herder: "feeding" the flock the Word of God; nurturing the flock by laboring to see Christ formed in us; leading the flock both by example (through holy living, through demonstrated faith) and by pointing the congregation to specific missions that God has given vision of; protecting the flock by teaching the congregants how to discern truth from falsehood, and also byrebuking error.
Knowledgeable and anointed preaching is only one aspect of the pastor's gifting. There also have to be organizational and motivational talents, spiritual foresight, the capacity for self-sacrifice, and fortitude to execute discipline. There's much more to pastoring than preaching, isn't there?
