The Narrow Path Ministries

A shepherd of sheep watches for predators that threaten the flock. He also watches for noxious plants and water that may poison them. When dangers arise, he warns the flock. Then he either guides them away from the danger or repels it.

Similarly, the special function of some men in a congregation is to watch for and respond to threats against the flock of God. Pastor, elder, presbyter, and bishop, are interchangeable designations of this office. These terms do not describe an organizational hierarchy of leadership levels, but portray the various aspects of the one office. A pastor (shepherd) is to be an elder/presbyter (older man) who works as a bishop (overseer) of God’s local flock. Or, it could be as accurately stated that a shepherd is an older man who oversees a congregation. Though there is one office, the early congregations are often said to have had several men serving that role.

God has given such men several responsibilities that revolve around the task of tending to God’s flock. First, they must spiritually feed the flock (teach God’s Word faithfully and accurately). Second, they must watch for members entering danger (error) and help guide them away from it. Third, they must watch for wolves (false teachers), warn the flock when they appear, and remove the threats when they attack the flock.

God has not assigned congregation leaders the task of micromanaging His flock as CEO's run corporations. A business corporation is a body of workers seeking monetary profit. That is not necessarily a bad endeavor, but it is not a pattern for Jesus’ congregations, which are the body of Christ laying up heavenly treasure. Congregation leaders are not to exploit God’s flock for their own aggrandizement. They are to declare truth, defend it from attackers, and deter lies. The flock is God’s.

These are my thoughts. Do you think I'm seeing this subject Scripturally? Insightful comments/corrections welcomed.

I think I agree with you, Candlepower!

l2j

Pastor, elder, presbyter, and bishop, are interchangeable designations of this office.

I agree that these are all words for the same office. "Presbyter" is simply the Anglicized form of the Greek word for "elder", and "bishop" is the way the Greek word for "overseer" (episkopos) is translated. According to Wiktionary, the old English word is "biscop", derived from the vulgar Latin "biscopus" which comes from the Latin "episcopus", which in turn is derived from the Greek "episkopos" the meaning of which is "overseer".

Initially there was a plurality of overseers in a single church. But as the church developed, one of them came to take precedence, and eventually only he was called "overseer", while the others were merely called "elders", and so the overseer-elder distinction came about. And so today in most protestant churches, there is only one overseer (usually called a "pastor"), and the presbyters are often called "deacons". But in the early church the "deacons" were "servers" (the meaning of the term in Greek). There were female deacons in the early church too. In the church of the first and second centuries, deacons were servers, and were not in a position of authority.

Some will argue that the overseer-elder distinction was there in the early church, too. They will quote the writings attributed to Ignatius, a man who was born in the first century. He was thought to have been born about 30 A.D. However, most experts believe the writings ascribed to him were hugely interpolated by later writers and that some of them were forgeries. Some experts thi0nk that none of these writings were composed by Ignatius.