As a college student, I find that the one question asked of me most frequently is, “What is your major?” At first I thought it was quite normal to respond that I was pursuing a pastoral major at Moody Bible Institute. But after going through this routine a hundred times, I have come to the conclusion that no one has any idea what I am talking about when I use the word “pastor”. The responses are extremely varied. “You mean you’re gonna be a priest?” or, “There’s a school for that sort of thing?” or, “You’re already a pastor, we’re all pastors in the Lord” and even, “Your father must have been a minister, right?” Clearly, this world has become very confused about the role and nature of the pastor.

The previous conversations were mostly with unbelievers, and I think we can cut them some slack on their ignorance of the church. It would be my hope that when we turn our attention to the church, we would find a better understanding of who the pastor is to be. But as many know, this is far from the truth. It seems that every church I walk into has a radically different definition of the word pastor. At first I was tempted t

Some topics in this essay:
Shepherding Church, Word Ac, Bible God, Robert Saucy, Looking Psalm, Jesus Lord, Timothy Titus, Marriage Divorce, Bible Institute, Peter Testament, pastoral ministry, pastoral role, flock god, word god, “shepherd flock, “shepherd flock god, pastoral office, sheep” jn, pet 52, jn 2116, “shepherd sheep”, “shepherd sheep” jn, flock god …, sheep” jn 2116, office personal gain,