Is a pastor an office in the church?

Much of the confusion regarding women in ministry (particularly public ministry) comes from the erroneous assumption that the word pastor refers to an office in the church.

In Ephesians 4:11-12, Paul refers to a group of five people who are themselves the gifts. These apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are given to the Church to build up the body of believers so that they may do the work of the ministry, not simply to do the work of the ministry themselves. Nowhere is there any reference to these given people being men or women, simply people given by God to the Church to accomplish His work in the lives of those who will do the ministry.

Certainly, in reference to pastoring, we know from Titus 2:4 that older women were to admonish the younger women in loving their husbands and keeping a home—these older women were clearly performing a pastoral function. Our problem with this word is that we have irreversibly connected this ministry of shepherding to the office of elder, to our endless confusion when discussing the issue of women in ministry. As a result, we have made ourselves incapable of having a clean, uncluttered, biblical discussion on the ministry of shepherds in the Church.

By studying the New Testament, one will find only one person referred to as a pastor, apart from the reference in Ephesians 4:11, 12. That one person is Jesus Christ. Every other reference to officers of the church uses the term in a verbal form, rather than the nominal. The verbal describes what an elder would do; the use of the noun would imply an office.

The biblical evidence is missing for the term being used to describe the office. More to follow.

I look forward to your commens.