Must We Say My Co-Worker, My Fellow Minister Or One of My Pastors?

Lead Pastors of some Charismatic Churches in Africa particularly in Ghana and Nigeria, in this generation, often refer to other pastors they serve with in the same denomination or local church as their pastors.

They say: “one of MY BISHOPS told me…”, “I have instructed two of MY PASTORS to…” or “one of MY DEACONS called to informed me that…” This expression or language is neither biblical nor Christian; it is simply worldly.

It is an expression of an authoritative form of church leadership where the lead pastor or bishop sees himself as the owner of the church and employer of the other pastors who serve in it.

Where are Charismatic church leaders going to? Clearly, many of us are getting it wrong and are on the way into the ditch. The language above is commonly used in the worldly businesses and industries where the CEO sees himself as the sole head, owner and boss.

Thus, he easily says: “my accountant,” “my manager,”  “my secretary”, or “my administrator.” A business owner may speak this way because he is the owner and head of the business and staff. Besides, he personally employs, pays and deals with them according to the laws of the country in which he operates.

However, the situation is quite different in the Church setting where Christ Jesus is the sole Head and owner, having declared that: “…I will build my Church…” (Matthew 16:18). It is never written: “…we will build our Church…” or “…you will build your church…”

The Lord Jesus is undoubtedly the Owner and Head of all true Christian churches. Therefore, Paul wants all apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers regarded as servants of Christ (1 Corinthian 4:1). They are His servants through whom He builds His Church.

This makes lead pastors unfit to project themselves as heads of churches they oversee and to refer to other pastors they serve together with as their pastors. Only Jesus Christ fits to do that.

However, a church may administratively structure its leadership by regarding the pastor who has oversight responsibility over the church as its lead pastor and the other pastors as fellow pastors or associate pastors.

Now, when we study the Bible, we realize that years before the earliest apostles started building churches or serving, Christ Jesus had instructed them to regard themselves and all believers as brothers.

“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and YOU ARE ALL BROTHERS” (Matthew 23:8).

This should remind erring and straying Charismatic church leaders of the equality of all ministers of the gospel and even all believers before God by virtue of our common faith, calling, baptism and salvation.

It is obvious that Christ foresaw that some of His servants would go astray and introduce or adopt hierarchical ecclesiastical titles to create needless class system in the Church.

Thus, Christ’s words, “you are all brothers” appears to be His prohibition of rankings and abuse of ministerial office in His Church. Thus, the foundational apostles appear to have understood these words of Christ so they avoided words or terms that would make them appear superior to others.

It is, therefore, not surprising that in the Pauline corpus pastors, including Timothy were referred to as co-workers. Paul who personally mentored, nurtured, fed and ordained Timothy never addressed him as his pastor.

In his book, A Pauline Theology of Church Leadership, Andrew D. Clarke, writes, “The term most frequently used by Paul to describe specific individuals (other ministers) is co-worker which occurs twelve times and is widely distributed across the corpus. It clearly reflects no ranking within the church.”

You see, so humble was Paul that he would not describe himself as the senior pastor and other preachers such as Timothy, Apollos, Titus or Epaphras as his pastors or junior pastors.

He humbly addressed them as his co-workers, brothers or servants of Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 3:2, Rom. 16:21, Col. 1:7, 2 Cor. 8:23).

This must be the expression and language that must be heard from the lips of Charismatic church leaders in Africa and other parts of the world.

By James Quansah