Page 54 - Pastoral Ministries -Student Textbook

Leading

1 Peter 5:3 states that a pastor is called to a position of leadership. He is not a dictator or someone that exhibits
a haughty, superior, or overbearing attitude. He is rather someone who goes in front, setting the pace and
inviting his people to follow.

Preaching and Teaching

In addressing Titus, whom he called his “true child in a common faith” (Titus 1:4), Paul set forth as one of Titus’
pastoral tasks the “holding fast” to “the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he (Titus)
may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict” (Titus 1:9).

Our preaching is to be used for two purposes; to exhort our own people and to refute error, especially the error
of those who contradict our teaching. The pastor’s message should always aim for a decision. Diatribes against
people are unworthy material for the Christian pulpit.

Correcting

Second Timothy 2:24-26 states that a pastor is to be gentle when he corrects those who oppose him. The only
prudent manner for giving such correction is in a personal confrontation. The pastor should speak to the
offender in person, humbly lay out the problem, give the person a chance to explain, and then show that person
from Scripture where he is wrong.

Evangelizing

Though Ephesians 4 defines an office of evangelist as distinctly different from the pastorate, Paul instructs young
Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5).

Visiting

When looking for a biblical precedence for pastoral visitation,
we would have a difficult assignment indeed. We could point
to the journey of Peter to Cornelius, and to Paul’s visits with
Priscilla and Aquila, and Timothy and his family. Nevertheless,
there is not enough biblical evidence to prove conclusively
those visits were routinely pastoral in nature.

Each of them seems to have been made with a special purpose
in mind. Peter’s visit to Cornelius was a unique evangelistic
journey directed specifically by God. Paul’s visits cast him in
the role of a church planter, missionary, and evangelist.
Probably the clearest case for New Testament visitation can be
made referring to Acts 2 where a great deal of visitation seems
to have taken place.

In the early church however, there was no sure clear demarcation of clergy from laity. So, in Acts 2 we see
th
Christians compelled by their love for each other spending time together. But somewhere in the 4 century, the
division in the church between clergy and laity emerged.

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