Today in my Pastoral Ministry class we will be discussing 1 Thess 5:12-13, which is a significant passage on the duties of pastors to congregation and congregation to pastors. Some seek to evade the language of authority in this text, but that is misguided. I think it reveals our discomfort with the idea of authority- which is a problem. Of course, there are examples of abuse of authority, but every good thing God has ordained has been abused somewhere. The way forward is not to reject what God has made but to pursue its proper use.<\/p>\n
Greg Beale, in his commentary<\/a>, speaks to this issue well:<\/p>\n One of the reasons for this predicament is that we too often view church leaders as CEOs of the church \u201ccorporation,\u201d whose purpose is to meet our needs.\u00a0 If the church does not meet our needs in the way we think it should, we find another \u201cchurch store\u201d to attend.\u00a0 Another reason for this situation is that the American church has been so permeated with democracy and individualism that these two great American ideals have been taken to an extreme.\u00a0 Too often churches proclaim that their goal is that every believer become a \u201cminister.\u201d\u00a0 The implication is that every believer is to be equal with every other believer and that, ideally, there should be no one in an authoritative position over anyone else.\u00a0 Of course, it is true that everyone in the church is equal in the sense of being in the image of God.\u00a0 Accordingly, all should grow in their recognition and exercise of the diverse gifts that they have received from God.\u00a0 But Christians are not equal in the sense that they have functional equality in the church.\u00a0 Rather, they have different gifts that entail different kinds of functions.\u00a0 Leadership is among these gifts (Eph 4:11).<\/p>\n We need to be instructed about the important role leaders play in the church and how others who have not been called to be leaders should look upon those in authority over them.[1]<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n