Why do I make faces every time my churchmates call me pastor? Its not that I hate pastors or the pastorate, I make faces whenever I am called pastors because I believe that people who should be called pastors should be pastors. It’s that simple. I make faces because I don’t think of myself as a pastor. I am a deacon; my job description is pastoral but I’m not a pastor. The title pastor is reserved for pastors although it does not mean that the work of the pastor is limited to the pastor.
Why I am against the indiscriminate use of the term “pastor”?
One reason is linguistics. The reason why words die is because they lose their sense. The death of a word starts with wrong usage. Naturally, wrong usage will result to the word’s vagueness and ambiguity. Vagueness and ambiguity takes away word’s specificity thus its power to recall images is gone.
What will happen if we start calling everyone pastors?
I remember a friend of mine who is a graduate of engineering. I call him engineer thinking that it would flatter him, but instead he was offended. He calmly told me that he is not an engineer until he passed the licensure exam. Now, I’m not saying that pastors should have a board exam (although I’m in favor of it especially for pastors who studied in theological seminary, but for layman pastors, their practical experiences more than suffices) what I’m trying to say is that attached to the word pastor is a heavy, heavy responsibility and to make fun of it by its indiscriminate use is simply wrong.
This may hurt, but I don’t think that unemployment should be taken and mistaken as a calling for the ministry. Unemployment should be taken for what it is. I mean, with the rate of unemployment in my church, and if we start calling all our church's unemployed pastors, we'll have a problem. This kind of thinking is not only wrong it also has no theological foundation. I say be realistic; the ministry is not for the unemployed it is for people who has the calling to lead.
The other reason is practical and organizational. The pastor is not only the spiritual head of the church but he is also its administrative head. Anyway, there’s no such a thing as a pulpit pastor, it’s an oxymoron—a contradiction in terms. Pastors are shepherds not pulpit drivers.
Of course it does not mean that I’m closing my doors to the pastorate, it’s just that I believe that the pastorate is something that one should prepare for physically, mentally, emotionally, and intellectually. The times are changing. The challenges that today’s ministers will be facing is the same as that of ministers faced before but these challenges will have a different faces and unless ministers of today are equipped they will have a difficult time meeting this challenge.
Pastorate—I remember how one of my church mate--who married a man who was almost appointed the youth pastor in our church but unfortunately run away with another woman--pronounce the word, without the last “e”; nah, too nasty to print here.
Of course I’m flattered when I’m called a pastor but you know….I know my church mates mean well but I have high regards for the pastorate since my father was a pastor, my older brother is a pastor, my in laws are pastors…hmmm…the odds are against me.
But still call me a prude and rude I don’t think the title pastor should not be taken lightly; I’ll tell when it’s time to call me a pastor. I hope and pray…
Pastor, pastor, pastor, castor, castor oil….(purgative oil)
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