The Difference Between Pastors and Teachers

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I was talking recently with a friend about the difference between pastors and teachers, and it got my thoughts churning. You know what Wodehouse said about some minds being like the soup in a bad restaurant — better left unstirred. But that’s too bad, too late now, etc.

Considered from one angle, this topic might seem a little theology wonkish — three office/four office debate and so on. But considered from another angle it could be considered the more controversial things I have written. (Overheard in the faculty lounge at Westminster West: “We’ll be the judge of that . . .”).

First, let’s get some of the biblical data out of the way. I understand the gifts that Paul describes in Ephesians to be four in number, not five (Eph. 4:11). That means that the fourth is a compound gift, that of pastor/teacher. This means that those who are called to this office should both instruct and shepherd the people of God. All pastors should be teachers.

But it does not follow that all teachers should be pastors. The gift of teaching is mentioned a number of times in Scripture as a stand-alone gift (e.g. 1 Cor. 12:28; Acts 13:1). A man in a seminary classroom, or a scholar devoted to the production of books, or engaged in similar activity, is doing something that is very valuable. But the fact that it is valuable and good does not mean that it is the same thing as a pastor. A screwdriver is valuable, but it is not a hammer.

So here is the difficulty. Because of the high value placed on intellectual rigor in the Reformed tradition, we have drifted into a position where the academic pastor is the highly prized pastor. He has a doctorate, hopefully from somewhere in the UK, he smokes a pipe, and there are bonus points if he sounds like Sinclair Ferguson. This is not a shot at Sinclair Ferguson, incidentally — he’s supposed to sound that way, and I am reading a fantastic book by him right now. So forget I mentioned it.
Teaching is good, and teachers are good, but teachers are not pastors. Big problems come down upon us when we assume that because the teaching is good, the pastoring is covered.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16–17).

The man of God here is the minister, the one called to pastoral ministry. He is given the Bible, his tool chest, and why? There are four things he is to do with it — teach doctrine, reprove, correct, and instruct in righteousness. Twenty-five percent of this is something a teacher could do. The rest of it is pastoral. And actually, the teaching of doctrine is, in the hands of a pastor, pastoral also. It is quite striking how Paul uses the term doctrine. “For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:10). Sound doctrine for Paul is wrapped up together with how the people of God are actually living their lives.

So pastors care about trajectories. They care about consequences. They care about the direction, the way a border collie cares about the direction. They don’t believe in tattoos, but if they did, “ideas have consequences” would be tattooed on their right forearm.

When pastors lose their touch, and forget the gospel of grace, the whole thing about “consequences” deteriorates into a simplistic moralism. The point about writing this is not that there is no such thing as pastors failing as pastors. That is manifestly not the case, as anyone who has had to deal with suffocating legalism can testify. When this happens — and it does happen — nobody here wants to defend it. When a maiden of Israel has a skirt that is two fingers above the knee and she is written off as a hoochy-mama, there has been a pastoral fail. Sure. But in the meantime, let us not forget multitudes of evangelical parents are begrudgingly buying their junior high daughters various hooker-wear outfits, silently wishing they could somehow get their family off the crazy train.

That said, let us come back to the point that teaching is not automatically pastoral. It is true that good teaching can be somewhat detached. Good pastoral care cannot be. Good teachers therefore know that they are one part of the body in our shared body life, and that their part in it is destructive if pastoral care is missing, or if their teaching is mistaken for pastoral care.

When teachers lose their touch, they assume their place in the stuffy atmospherics of the seminar classroom, there endlessly to discuss ideas, the kind of ideas that never have any consequences whatsoever. Well, actually, they do have consequences, just not consequences that a non-pastoral teacher might notice or care about. A teacher assumes that if he has an immune system in a particular area (or thinks he does), then the students must all have a robust immune system also. But they don’t, and so they get all screwed up by philosophers, theologians, and movie directors that a wise pastor would not let within three miles of these malleable little brains and hearts. And here is a good litmus test. Anybody who responds to this criticism with a sentence that includes the phrase “but academic freedom” is plainly part of the problem.

Pastors care about the natural trajectory of ideas, and they care about what weaker heads are going to do with certain ideas. This is not to say that the people of God should never be taught to respond appropriately to the streams and currents out in the world. They should be. I am just saying you don’t do the live ammo exercises on the second day of boot camp. Equipping the saints to respond to error is a very different thing than introducing them to it. I have seen many instances of the latter when people thought they were doing the former. Pastors know that the very first step when it comes to a genuine “engagement with culture” is to “beware of vain philosophy” (Col. 2:8).

Pastors know that preaching drives the word deep into hearts, and it does so in a way that mere teaching cannot do. Teaching can reach the self-motivated, and that is one of the great blessings it brings. But pastors have to care for the whole flock, and that includes those who are not self-motivated. I remember one time, decades ago, visiting a large church with a “name” pastor. He preached a sermon that was exegetically sound, ably derived from the text, and so on. It was a lot of good information. But when it was over I felt like he had handed everyone in the sanctuary a spike, and entrusted us all to take it home and drive it into our own hearts. But that is not how it is supposed to work (Acts 2:37). Some people do, but most don’t. After a generation of that, when it comes to sound doctrine, things look pretty ugly.

Pastors believe that their task is not measured in tiny increments of time, but rather in the light of eternity. The goal is to get the people somewhere. The intention is present every man perfect in Christ. “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–13).

Pastors care about the climate control inside the greenhouse. This is one of the things that their preaching and teaching can do. It sets the tone, it sets the expectation. Preaching settles the baseline, and pastoral care seeks to make the individual applications. And by saying all this, incidentally, I am not claiming that this is something I have mastered. Far from it. But I do know that this is what the task actually is, and I do know that the question who is sufficient? is the question that pastors should hang around their necks like a garland.

Pastors want their people to die well. Pastors are concerned about how the college students are going to do when they are gone over the summer — three months is more than enough to wreck your life. Pastors pray for their people. And one of the griefs that a good pastor has is that his gifting attracts many to his ministry — more than he feels like he can be a good pastor to. But he still feels responsible for them. “Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?” (2 Cor. 11:28–29).

I am not saying that teachers should care about all these things in exactly the same way. It is a different gift, and a different calling. Of course they should care in the sense that every believer should care, and in the sense that every officer of the church should care. But good pastors get worked up about it.

So the problem I am addressing comes when we think that the gifting of a teacher is sufficient to place a man in the office of a pastor. Good teachers care if those they teach know the lesson. Good teachers want the teaching to be clear, and remembered. But a man can be a good teacher, and still not be gifted to see all the interconnections, trajectories, consequences, temptations, and snares. Don’t blame him for not seeing it — but if he doesn’t see it, he shouldn’t be the pastor. Pastors are involved with all the stuff of life, with the wires running everywhere. They are concerned with everlasting results, and these results have to be connected to everything.

So pulpit or lectern? Both are good, and we need both. But it is terrible to confuse them, and we are desperate for a right understanding of the former.

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BJ
BJ
9 years ago

If a professor does not care what his/her ideas do to those to whom they teach them they are not a good professor. Certainly they are called to go deeper into their field of study, but if they refuse to honor God in how their ideas play out, we need to condemn them. For far too long now, pastors have been dealing with the fallout of growing secularism taught or implicitly accepted by our professors in Christians colleges. The problems do not come back to the academy, but live in the churches. It was the professors of all subject areas… Read more »

RFB
RFB
9 years ago

I have never understood how professors in Christians colleges are allowed to obtain the position without being examined in much the same way as a man being elevated into the position of a Pastor/Elder. I have never understood how professors in Christians colleges are allowed to retain the position if they are not in submission to (and held accountable) to the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. If they think that their “knowledge” is somehow insulted by said accountability, I would venture that the appropriate response would be to tell them to “guard the deposit entrusted… Read more »

Dan Glover
9 years ago

Hi Doug, Thanks for this. There seems to be an unfinished thought in paragraph 13, where you are speaking of those in the congregation who need pastoral application made and made in a straightforward manner for them. You get to the example of the ‘name’ pastor without finishing your sentence, although it is pretty easy to see where you were going with it.

Valerie (Kyriosity)
9 years ago

It seems to me (from a completely intuitive place that I can’t really back up) that any time you’re talking about teaching, the idea of discipleship ought to be in there somewhere. Any Bible teaching that is merely about intellectual correctness is automatically intellectually incorrect because the Bible shouts about the insufficiency of that approach. If the devil could teach your syllabus (in a James 2:19ish way), yer doin’ it wrong. I think the Reformed world often gets this wrong when we evaluate “able to teach” more in terms of fat theology texts than in terms of the Great Commission… Read more »

Eric Stampher
Eric Stampher
9 years ago

Preaching & lecturing are both good. But a good pastor doesn’t need to do either.

I was talking to a CREC “pastor” who admitted he wasn’t really friends with any of his flock. Just didn’t make a connection. And wasn’t really the job description. Wow.

When the only “minister” a flock has spends more than half his week preparing his teachings & sermons, rather than walking among his sheep, ain’t something wrong???

RFB
RFB
9 years ago

Eric,

Since God says that elders shall be “able to teach”, able to “rightly divide the Word”, and “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict”, I think that you are making quite a reach to say “Preaching & lecturing are both good. But a good pastor doesn’t need to do either.”

Brent
Brent
9 years ago

Pastor Wilson, how should a classical Christian educator ensure that he/she is not assuming the role of pastor in the classroom? Is his/her only job to “teach doctrine” and leave the “reproof,” “correction,” and “instruction in righteousness” to the church?

Could one say that a pastor primarily operates in the imperative, while a teacher primarily operates in the indicative?

Dan Phillips
9 years ago

1. Really good, thanks.

2. Seems to me this also makes a start towards the idea that the only difference between a deacon and an elder is the ability to teach. Though perhaps you could write on that sometime, as well.

3. If this were an unmoderated Pyro thread, someone would try to make it all about tattoos. If it were a TGC thread, he’d succeed.

Dave
Dave
9 years ago

Great post, but I have a follow-up/application question: I’m the Bible study teacher for a group of singles in their 20’s. We attend a megachurch where there isn’t too much direct interaction between the pastoral staff and members (especially in my group). How should I approach my role? Instinctively, I’ve treated my responsibility to this group as a pastoral one, and I’ve tried to be involved and aware (not always successfully, I’m afraid) of how their growth is progressing. So from this perspective, should Bible study teachers / community-group leaders approach their ministry as a pastoral one or a teaching… Read more »

rcjr
9 years ago

Excellent piece, as per usual. Just wanted to note that what may be best about it is the parenthetical comment on Children of the Living God. By far the best Christian book I have read in the past ten years. It is the climax of my Doctrine of Salvation class at Reformation Bible College. By the by, one of Dr. Ferguson’s greatest strengths is precisely what your piece is here calling for. Every word out of his brilliant mouth is profoundly pastoral. Which is quite rare for a professor of systematics.

Mark B. Hanson
Mark B. Hanson
9 years ago

I agree completely with what is written about pastors. And we reformed believe in a highly educated pastorate – well and good. But there’s often quite a distance in training and knowledge between the pastor and the rest of the teachers (even if they are ruling elders) regarding theology and doctrine. Where most of us teachers look for information is the output of the non-pastoral professors in our colleges – the ones who write the books. But such folks are often fairly disconnected from the day-to-day life in the church at large. This is why I am sympathetic to the… Read more »

Eric Stampher
Eric Stampher
9 years ago

RFB

Hopefully the teaching you get from your pastors doesn’t come mainly from pulpit or lectern.

Andrew Lohr
9 years ago

Without making every teacher a pastor, every teaching has, at least potentially somewhere, a pastoral aspect–helpful or hurtful to people–and a wise teacher, or at very least his Christian supervisors, should bear this in mind. Also, from Peter Wagner, someone who doesn’t have a gift/calling may sometimes have to do what those with the gift/calling do most of the time. (Wagner is married, but when traveling without his wife he does what those with the gift of celibacy do.) A mostly non-pastoral teacher may do something pastoral now and then. And, for fun, A.W. Tozer left most of the hospital… Read more »

Eric Stampher
Eric Stampher
9 years ago

Andrew — Exactly. But is it not true that most “teachers” revel in the pastor title, without pastoring being much of their repertoire?

Brian G. Daigle
9 years ago

Once the Sacraments are put in their rightful place, teachers (academic, parents, pastors, etc.) are put in theirs.

Jane Dunsworth
Jane Dunsworth
9 years ago

But is it not true that most “teachers” revel in the pastor title, without pastoring being much of their repertoire?

Eric Stampher, You point out a legitimate problem for a church and a real danger in a teacher’s life. But the wording of that sentence causes me to wonder what your life experience has been, that has made you privy to the interior life of “most” teachers?

Eric Stampher
Eric Stampher
9 years ago

Hi Jane,

Truth be told, I’ve met only a handful of the folks with “Pastor” shingles hung out.
But of those few, none have shown much pastoring inclination, to speak of.

So Jane, have you ever experienced a pastor who initiated at least a “checking in” call or visit with your family at a rate exceeding, say, once every six months?

Jane Dunsworth
Jane Dunsworth
9 years ago

Eric, no I haven’t, but I’m not sure why that’s relevant, because I didn’t challenge your point. My point is really that your rhetoric often gets in the way of some good points you make. Implying that you know, based on a small sample, not only what “most” pastors do but what they’re thinking and feeling while they do it is unwarranted. I’m not claiming that your experience is unrepresentative, I’m saying you don’t have have warrant for 1) thinking it’s representative and 2) importing what you think is going on in pastors; hearts and heads (“reveling”) into the discussion.… Read more »

Eric Stampher
Eric Stampher
9 years ago

Jane, I’m sure you’re right about my unwarranted assumptions. Thanks for the kind admonishment. I will challenge your observation that this post by Doug is about teachers primarily. I sense Doug taking a broader look at pastoral roles. As yet, Doug has not spilled much ink on the topic of personal pastoring — a function the church can’t do without. We’ll see in subsequent offerings. To our agreement, my question to you was survey, not challenge. So far, I’ve found your experience to be representative. And so seems your inurement to not having personal pastoring. I think we’ve developed compensations… Read more »

RFB
RFB
9 years ago

Eric,

From my vantage point you seem to, in a number of posts, suggest that you have a specific understanding of the qualifications and duties of a pastor. Perhaps it would be better for you to state your position (with supporting scripture) so that someone can clearly interface with your argument(s).

David Axberg
9 years ago

Spot on a big Amen and amen. By the way I could sit and listen to Dr. Ferguson for hours on end. He is the pastor of pastors.

Thanks and God bless now!

Eric Stampher
Eric Stampher
9 years ago

The paucity of publication in the journals on this malady reveals just how accepting of our disease we’ve been.

Corina Treece
Corina Treece
9 years ago

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Eric Stampher
Eric Stampher
9 years ago

Hi RFB, Shepherds should guard, lead & feed the flock so intimately that the flock will “know their shepherd’s voice” & personality & idiosyncrasies. He is their example of how to live. Heaven forbid that his behavior be likened like this: “The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought…” A pastor leads sheep in lives swirling around the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, promoting works of ministry. He must know his sheep and the sheep must know… Read more »

Jane Dunsworth
Jane Dunsworth
9 years ago

Eric, I just described having personal pastoring, not not having personal pastoring. My pastor doesn’t make a lot of appointments and targeted phone calls. But we’re a small church, so he regularly talks to us in various contexts, and has a good sense of where we are. Is that pastoring, or “not pastoring?” You seem to want to believe that you’re among the few, the proud, that has a grip on this. I’m sorry your experience has been such that you haven’t experienced being pastored, but there really are a lot of pastors out there who understand their own jobs,… Read more »

Eric Stampher
Eric Stampher
9 years ago

Speaking of pride, Jane — If I were your pastor, I’d be very proud of my able and energetic defender!

Daniel
Daniel
9 years ago

Thank you Pastor Doug. I am in my early 20’s serving a high school ministry, and one of the many things I deal with is, “Why don’t kids of this generation pursue Christ?” I just cannot accept the fact that “this is the way they are.” High school students are taught so many different things, that when it comes to preaching for 40 minutes on a Sunday I am amazed that my kids even get the message. I am still developing a clear communication of the gospel, and every time I step up on the pulpit my insides twist because… Read more »

Janet Anebi
Janet Anebi
2 years ago

This is the truth pastors are better than teachers

Rob
Rob
11 months ago

This was writen by person who is 95% Pastor and 5% teacher. U speak only about Pastor, so I perceive you know very little about teacher. One you are on point about teacher. We want people to learn and remeber. I would add also to have revelation in the spirit and put it in to practice in real life. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. TO SEE PEOPLE TAKING INITIATIVE IN WORD OF GOD. NOT ONLY BE HIERERS OF THE WORD OF GOD BUT ALSO DORERS THEREOF. Your acapits all starts like this: ,, Pastors believe……. ,, ,, Pastors want …….. ,, ,, Pastors… Read more »

Rob
Rob
11 months ago

You speak to many words and you give little knowledge .

Holy Spirit told me ,, Less is more,,.

Pls consider this in your heart.

Blessings
R