Topic > Pastoral Ministry - 2138

Christ is the head of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said, "God has put all things under his feet and made him head over all things for the church", however, God he entrusted the authority to lead to his servant who set them aside to lead the community. Pastoring as public leadership is leading the community. A person called by God to lead the public has the responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of the best questions raised in class during the public leadership discussion was, “How can we be a community pastor rather than simply a church pastor?” This is really the kind of question we need to consider as a pastor, especially as a rural congregation pastor. In most cases, when pastors are called to ministry, especially at the first call, what is on the pastor's mind is not the community at large but only the congregation he/she will serve. As a pastor we are not only called to deal with the spiritual lives of the people in the Church, we are also responsible to take part in the leadership of the socio-economic, political, cultural and other aspects of the entire community to which we are called. God calls shepherd through the congregation, every time God calls it is not because who we are but because who God is. Jesus does not say to the eleven disciples: all power has been given to you, therefore go... what is said is that to me all power has been given in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). All power and authority belongs to God, however, God has entrusted us with His authority to go and be servants. Who will be a good leader? Being a leader does not require perfection; the only perfect leader of his people is God. Paul did not insist on the perfection of the young Timothy, but gave it to the public by means of a sheet of paper and proclaims the gospel to the uneducated, and the pastors should focus on internal evangelism. It is difficult to evangelize others before being evangelized ourselves. Most churches try to evangelize others by donating their resources, being a good steward is good for promoting the work of evangelization; however, the pastor should focus on evangelizing the members of his congregation first. Today, most churchgoers do not understand the Bible. When God commanded Moses to build the Tabernacle, his construction began from the innermost part of the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:10), the last work to be done to finish the Tabernacle was the outer parts (Exodus 40:33). Here I want to indicate that the Pastor should begin the work of evangelization from the benches to the community. To produce a good evangelist, the pastor should work to make his congregation knowledgeable in the Bible.