I am not a pastor, although I get called one on a regular basis.  I am a gospel preacher, an evangelist, and there is plenty of work for me to do in that role without any of the responsibilities that belong to pastors (2 Tim. 4:1-5).

I know this sounds strange, even nitpicky, to a lot of people.  In most Protestant denominations, the man in the pulpit is called a pastor.  When someone from the community calls me a pastor, I recognize that they are only trying to show respect and are simply using the term to designate me as a person who has given his life to preaching the gospel.

Technically speaking, the word “pastor” designates a shepherd.  The shepherd is an important biblical image of leadership.  Jesus called himself the “Good Shepherd,” saying of himself that “the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (Jn. 10:3).  Pastors, according to biblical usage, are in leadership positions in the church, which is sometimes called the “flock” (Lk. 12:32).

In the Bible the terms “pastor,” “elder,” and “overseer” are synonymous.  Take, for example, Acts 20, where Paul calls the “elders” of the church at Ephesus to a meeting with him in Miletus (v. 17).  In verse 28 he says to these men, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”  The apostle addresses this group of elders first as “overseers” (episkopos), a word sometimes translated “bishop” (cf. Phil. 1:1, KJV), and then he charges them “to care for the church of God.”  “To care” is the verb form of the word translated “pastors” (poimen) in Ephesians 4:11.  That is why some translations choose to translate it “shepherd” (NASB).  You can find forms of these same three terms—“elder,” “overseer,” and “pastor”—used interchangeably in 1 Peter 5:1-4.  All three describe the same office.

I am not qualified to be a pastor.  One requisite in Titus clearly rules me out: Pastors must have children who are “believers” (1:6).  As a father of two small children, I haven’t had the opportunity to lead them to Christ, although it is my prayer that I may one day do so.

I am privileged to serve under the oversight of four godly pastors.  Perhaps one day I will be qualified to serve in this capacity, but for now I am busy doing the work of an evangelist, preaching the gospel, which is God’s way of saving those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21).  And that is enough.