“Senior Citizen Pastor”

Thursday, March 21, 2019

     It seems like you say that at least 75% of all churches in America are guilty of not being biblically-based churches and not taking the Bible seriously enough simply because they have youth pastors or senior pastors, right?  In which case, they would be a bad church to go to even if the Word of God were being preached and the church was prospering because they were applying biblical standards to their ministry and making it the church's mission to teach others how to go out and spread the gospel.  I am not trying to argue with you; I am just trying to take what you say and apply it to most churches in the U.S.  I believe you’re right that the Bible never mentions these terms (youth and senior pastors) in the Bible and that they are man-made terms, but what would you then call your minister to the youth if there was one in your church?

Sincerely,
Too Many Technicalities

Dear Too Many Technicalities,

If a congregation isn't doing what the Bible says (i.e. they aren't following God's standards for church leadership), they aren't preaching the whole counsel of God, and just because a church is prospering doesn't mean that it is doing what God wants.  Prosperity and faithfulness aren't the same, and the number of people in the pews isn't necessarily an indication that you are doing what God wants.

Part of the confusion here is that you are using the words 'pastor' and 'minister' interchangeably.  Those are two different jobs.  If someone is going to be a pastor, he must meet the qualifications found in 1 Tim 3:1-7 and Tit 1:5-9… do these two men (the youth pastor and senior pastor) do that?

On the other hand, a minister is anyone that preaches the gospel.  Pastors make decisions for local congregations, but ministers just preach and teach; they have no authority to make congregational decisions.  A minister doesn't have to meet the qualifications of a pastor.  A pastor is an elder, an older man, but Timothy was a minister (1 Tim 4:6), and he was a young man (1 Tim 4:12).

Another thing to consider is that ‘youth pastor’ means that ‘one that leads the youth’, but ‘senior pastor’ rarely means ‘one that leads the seniors’.  A senior pastor is typically a man that has been given more authority than other pastors in the church – once again, something we never see in the Bible.  When congregations don't pay careful attention to how their leadership should be run, they are bound to make other major mistakes in other important areas.

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