August 15th
The Pastor and the Local Church
I have taught in a Bible school where there were quite a number of students who did not belong to any local church. There were missionaries in this nation who never belonged to a local church while there were others who had contemplated the idea of not belonging to any local church. Instead they were thinking of just moving from church to church, just not to offend any pastor. Of course there are many Christians who do not belong to any local church.
Therefore I would like to share some excerpts with you concerning the office of a pastor in a local church so that you may understand the importance of being a part of a local church.
The following excerpts are taken from the book, “He Gave Gifts Unto Men”
by Kenneth E. Hagin:
There are two primary organizations or institutions that God has put His approval on. Number one, the home and family. He instituted that first. Number two, the church. And really, the local church is like a family; it is a church family. Have you ever noticed that the family and the church are two things the devil attacks more than anything else? People are always asking, “What is God doing today?” as if God is going to do something new every day. One of the main things God is doing today is emphasizing the local church. But that’s not new.
God has always put His blessing, approval, and emphasis on the local church, but because some of things have gotten out of balance, He is reemphasizing the local church to let us know it is a priority with Him. Actually, God is just directing us back to where we ought to be.
I’ll tell you exactly what God wants to do in the Body of Christ today. Number one, He wants to build strong local churches. Number two, He wants members of local churches to learn to flow in the Spirit.
Notice something Jesus said about the pastoral office in …
Matthew 9:35-36
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching thegospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted,and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. KJV
In this passage, the Bible doesn’t say that when Jesus saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion because the people fainted as sheep without an apostle or prophet. It doesn’t say the multitude fainted as sheep without an evangelist or teacher. No! It says that they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep without a shepherd! Sheep need a shepherd. Jesus knew the sheep would be scattered without a pastor. The evangelist and the teacher don’t have the same anointing on them to take care of the sheep and nurture them.
No Substitute for the Local Church
The shepherd holds a unique place in the fivefold ministry because he is the one who has been set in the Church by Jesus to nurture and tend the sheep.
When I say God put his approval on the church, that means the local body, not someone’s television ministry. That’s not the church. That is just an arm of the ministry, and it can never substitute for the local body. A radio ministry can never take the place of the local church, nor can crusades or seminars.
Radio and television ministries and crusades and seminars are just supplements or outreaches of the church; they are not the local church. People who think they can quit going to church and just listen to television ministries and go to crusades and seminars is like someone trying to stay alive eating only vitamin supplements instead of food!
It’s the same way with the local church. If you quit going to church and just try to grow spiritually by relying on radio or television ministries for your spiritual diet, your spiritual health will suffer.
I’ve told people for years, “Send your tithes to your local church. After you’ve paid your tithes and offerings to your local church, then you can send an offering to another ministry if you want to.” I’ve never asked anyone to send me their tithes because I believe the tenth belongs to the local church (Lev. 27:32; Mal 3:10).
When you are sick or in the hospital, do these television ministers who want your tithes and offerings come and minister to you? When you get married, do they come and counsel you and perform the ceremony? Do they help you in times of trouble and family bereavement” No!
No, the pastor is the one who perform those functions in the local church. And he is the one who makes sure the flock of God is fed a balanced spiritual diet. For that reason he holds a unique place among the sheep. He is like the daddy of a family. He loves the sheep in a way that evangelist, prophet, or teacher can’t love them because he has the shepherd’s anointing on him.
You see, the evangelist can preach, but when the service is over, he can walk out the door. And the teacher and the prophet can come along and hold a teaching crusade at a church and teach the people, but when it’s over, they can leave.
But the pastor can’t leave the sheep that have been committed to his care, nor does he want to, not if he’s a true shepherd. His ministry is stationary in the local body. He’s got to stay right there with the people and help nurture them.
Let me say something else while I’m at it. Teaching centers cannot take the place of the local church. Some of these teaching centers have one or two services a week, but there is no shepherd, only a teacher. That’s not having a church.
A pastor can be a teacher, don’t misunderstand me. But if a minister is just a teacher, and he isn’t called to the pastoral office, then his teaching center can’t take the place of the local church. If he’s just a teacher, he ought to teach the people about getting into a good home church.
As a pastor, the people needed to know I was available and that I was there to serve them. Besides, a pastor would rather minister to the need of the sheep than do anything else.
That’s the reason it is readily apparent that some folks aren’t called to the pastoral office. They don’t want to be with the sheep.
No, the true shepherd loves the sheep. He’d rather die than to see them hurt. He wants to see the sheep blessed and helped more than anything else.
The Local Church is a Church Family
As a church family, the local church is going to have some of the same problems that any natural family will have because it’s made up of people. The pastor has to deal with those problems, whether it is discipline problems, financial problems, or any other kind of problems. It is not the job of some so-called apostle or prophet who doesn’t even know the sheep to come in and start disciplining another man’s sheep.
In the natural realm, children in a family sometimes get into disobedience and need a father’s guidance. Sometimes the father of a family needs to provide correction. When your children need discipline, you don’t call an outsider in to take care of disciplining them, do you? Of course not.
It’s the same way in the local body. That local pastor is like the daddy of the local church. The sheep in a church body need the shepherd to nurture them with the Word of God and care for them in the sheepfold. And if they need discipline, they need a pastor who has their best interests at heart to administer biblical correction in a loving way.
The shepherd is the one who is qualified to correct the sheep spiritually if they need it because he is there all the time with them. He knows his congregation and has a genuine care and concern for their welfare. If his flock sometimes needs to be corrected, it is certainly not the teacher’s responsibility, any more than it is the apostles’ or prophet’s responsibility, to come in and spiritually correct a pastor’s church members.
No, people need a shepherd! They can’t be perfected without the pastor of the local body. Actually, all the other ministry gifts would labor in vain if it weren’t for the pastor, because he is the one who is responsible to tend, care for, and nurture the sheep with the Word of God. Sheep will never grow spiritually and never reach full maturity without a shepherd and the local church.
The benefit of the local church goes beyond just the spiritual side of life. The local church was also instituted by God to be a blessing to people on the natural side of life.
That’s why the local church is so important. At one time or another in our lives, all of us need help in the natural realm as well as in the spiritual realm.