“I am old fashioned enough to still believe that God works through a pastor to shepherd His flock. You have only one pastor. That is the man whom God has set over you. You cannot pastor yourself. You need a flesh-and-blood man with feelings and temptations and a man who is subject to afflictions. God could have put an angel down here that did not have any feelings, but an angel would not know how you are hurting. An angel would have no way to sympathize with you or to have compassion. Therefore, He chose a man, a physical, flesh-and-blood human being. God instructed the flock to pay attention to him. If he is truly a man called of God, you have no excuse for disobeying his anointed, preached messages.

If you want to be successful, you are going to have to submit to God and the man of God. …

I want you to realize that you must submit when your way clashes with whomever is in charge. The pastor is in charge of his congregation, but some people do not like that. The Word of God calls him “the overseer,” which is a supervisor, or a boss.”

The above quote was taken by from an article titled Preparing Your Way Before the Lord, written by Brother Richard Talbot. It was published in The Gospel Trumpeter, Vol 40, July 2010, No.7, on page 17.

First, let us say that we have no personal bone to pick or axe to grind with Bro Talbot or with any of the saints in Newark, Ohio who publish The Gospel Trumpeter. We believe that they are very dedicated Christians who are doing their best to support what they believe to be the truth of God’s Word. Bro Talbot is a very likable person and we have much respect and confidence in him. We could easily have put forth many other example Gospel Trumpeter articles to illustrate the authoritative position that they believe pastors play in the lives of the saints. We just picked this article since it is one of the more recent articles.

We take strong exception to his viewpoint on pastoral authority in this article. While typical for this particular Institutional church group, as well as other similar church groups, the mindset described in this article is very much out of line with clear Biblical principles found throughout the New Testament.

Let us examine this article in small segments and compare it with scripture.

1.      1. I am old fashioned enough to still believe that God works through a pastor to shepherd His flock. – God does indeed work through gifted pastors to feed His flock, but he also works through gifted apostles, gifted evangelists, gifted prophets and gifted teachers (Ephesians 4:11-12). Feeding a flock is not restricted to pastors only. In fact, when an assembly meeting is rightfully conducted and led of the Lord, God will work through each member of the body to edify and feed the rest of the body (1 Corinthians 14:26). Believing that God only works through the pastor to feed His flock is not “old fashioned” at all. This manner of thinking is in fact a result of the early apostasy of the New Testament church.

2.      2. You have only one pastor. That is the man whom God has set over you. – You can search the scriptures through and through and never find where there was only one pastor per assembly. In fact, the word “pastor’ is only found one time in the New Testament and in that one instance, it was listed in the plural, along with the other ministry gifts (Ephesians 4:11). Contrarily, we find throughout the entire New Testament that there were multiple overseers in each local assembly (Acts 14:23, Acts 15, Acts 20:17, 1Timothy 5:17, Titus 1:5, James 5:14). The hierarchical governing method of only one pastor per congregation is clearly a result of the apostasy of the early church and is a tradition handed down from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

3.      3. You cannot pastor yourself. You need a flesh-and-blood man with feelings and temptations and a man who is subject to afflictions. – In the hierarchical system such as is presented here, we must ask “who pastors the Pastors?”. If everyone needs a pastor, then surely pastors need a pastor as well. In the scriptures, we find that all Christians come directly under the headship of Christ, who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” and “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”  Therefore, we can come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. “ (Hebrews 4:15-16)

4.      4. God instructed the flock to pay attention to him. If he is truly a man called of God, you have no excuse for disobeying his anointed, preached messages. – Nowhere in scriptures do we find where God instructed the flock to pay attention to a pastor who has been appointed to be over the saints. Rather, we find instruction to “obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief.” (Hebrews 13:17) Rather than a single leader, New Testament churches were governed by multiple elders, which the local saints were instructed to remember, to obey, to salute and to know on an individual basis. (Hebrews 13:7, 17, 24, 1 Thessalonians 5:11-15)

5.      5. If you want to be successful, you are going to have to submit to God and the man of God. – The expression “man of God” is an Old Testament expression. It refers primarily to Old Testament leaders, such as David, Moses, Elisha, etc… In the New Testament, under the new covenant, this expression is only used twice and in both instances, it is made in reference to Christians in a collective sense. (1 Timothy 6:11, 2 Timothy 3:17). In the headship chapter, 1 Corinthians 11, no mention is made of the pastor or the "man of God". Much like the expression “a man of the cloth” referring to a Catholic Priest, the expression “the man of God” referring to a Pastor is an abuse of terminology.

6.     6.  I want you to realize that you must submit when your way clashes with whomever is in charge. – Most church clashes and splits are a result of differences that have developed among the leadership, not among the saints. Submitting to one another is clearly a two way street.  The younger submit themselves to the elders and in the same manner, the elders must submit themselves to the younger . (1 Peter 5:5) All submit to God.

7.      7. The pastor is in charge of his congregation, but some people do not like that. – The pastor does not own the congregation and it is not his. The saints are bought with a price: therefore we are to glorify God in our body, and in our spirit, which are God's. (1Corinthians 6:20) No congregation or people belong to a man. Likewise, no congregation in the New Testament was ever referred to by the name of the pastor because none of them had a single pastor in charge.

8.      8. The Word of God calls him “the overseer,” which is a supervisor, or a boss. – An overseer is indeed one who has leadership responsibility, but as with the church in Ephesus, there are to be multiple overseers per local assembly. (Titus 1:5) They are to be in submission one to one another. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”  (Acts 20:28)  Rather than think of themselves as bosses, those pastors that are truly called of God view themselves as servants. Anytime a leader begins to view himself as a boss or begins to act like a boss, trouble is sure to follow. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 20:27-28, "whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." When rightful control is taken from the Head of the church (Colossians 1:18) and a spirit of preeminence takes over a man (3 John 1:9), your have a recipe for disaster.

So, we have shown that nearly every expression in this section of the article is out of line with clear scriptural principles. This manner of thinking is not “old fashioned” at all, but is based on spiritual apostasy and hand-me-downs from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Man’s ways will always led to confusion and strife, which we have seen all of our life under the pastoral authority form of leadership. But God’s way will bring about freedom and liberty and will foster and nurture a personal and direct relationship between man and God, unhindered by the confines of a man-made hierarchical structure.

To learn more about biblical eldership, be sure to click here to download a PowerPoint presentation on this important subject.