Quick Grab - On the Pastor

Cyprian (~250AD) - entrenched the separation of clergy and laity 

departing from the "all things in common" original church.

Pastor mentioned once in NT (KJV) Eph4:11
Priests mentioned 3 times but always in the plural (priesthood of ALL believers).
Pastor = shepherd
It is a metaphor for a function in the church rather than its present professional sense and title.
The same could be said for the following NT terms.
Bishops = overseers
Presbyters = elders
Deacons = helpers

A human trait is to restrain some believers and exalt others.
Moses was ok with everyone prophesying (Nu.11:26).
Israel's fear left only Moses to relate to God (Ex.20:19).
Israel wanted a human king whereas God was ok with Judges (1Sam8:19)

Self-exaltation sucks.
Judas' desire to be the efficient treasurer.
Diotrephes' desire to be pre-eminent (3Jo9).
The Nicolaitans, a religious group bringing false beliefs and ideas into the church.(Rev2:6)


[The five fold ministers (apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and pastors in Eph4:11) were servants, imparters and equippers to the body of believers, usually itinerant, and certainly not the churches' overlords.
Their role much the same as one might bring in a trainer to improve one's skill in an interest].


By the time the apostles and their successors died out (through to AD100), people like Ignatius (~100AD) started giving pre-eminence to a bishop's office. He wrote like this .... "All of you follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father"....

Tertullian (~200AD) was the first to write the word "clergy".

Clement and Tertullian made a distinction between laity and clergy (late 100s early 200s).
Cyprian resurrected OT practices and stated that anyone who separated themselves from the bishop separated from God !  [sound familiar to any of you hurt by religion?]
Once this is accepted anything is possible. 
(even sacerdotalism - recognition of a divine human mediator to God)
By Constantine's time (300s) the church is politically and economically entrenched, using the cultural hierarchical rules of the day.

In the original church, recognition of Holy Spirit gifted members was instinctive and organic.
Ordain meant affirming a function for the body rather than placing one into an office.(Ac14:23,1Tim3:1,Ti1:5) Laying on of hands could also impart a spiritual gift.

With laity/clergy separated, ordination was a further elitism.
The reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, 1500s) may have recovered the idea of the "priesthood of all believers" but kept the practice of the ordained minister sacred (to the extent of persecuting anabaptists who practised the concept that any member may speak in a meeting).
Calvin and Luther didn't like the office of priest (catholic connotations) so adopted terms like preacher, minister and pastor.
Calvin and Bucer re-instated the "cure of souls" (curate) role (diagnoses of maladies, cure, healing compassion) for pastors.

Frank Viola presents disturbing statistics on burnout for pastors being amongst the worst of professions.
Delinquency in their children, poor physical and mental health, divorce and family breakdown, church dissent and turning away from their belief.
Jesus has only left a sustainable, blessed and glorious church dynamic by sending us the Holy Spirit.
The pastoral system needs to be re-aligned to the bliss of His Will.

The reduction of the church to a small specialist group  operating over a large group has little resemblance to the multi-person participation in the early church which allowed the Holy Ghost to "divide (gifts) to every man severally as He will"(1Cor12:11).

ref. : Frank Viola and George Barna book - "Pagan Christianity"
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