Pastor or Manager

Ron MacKinzie is a favorite read of mine. He is reviewing his life as a pastor. He's not one now. But, he is a good theologian. I am going to post verbatim and unedited what he writes. I could just link it which I will also do but this is too thought provoking to meddle with.

When I was the manager of a large division in a public service organisation, I spent my time doing the following tasks:

* Going to meetings
* Organising people
* Dealing with issues
* Resolving problems
* Talking the vision

When I was a pastor, I did these same tasks.

Most pastors are managers or chief executives. If they want to be managers, that’s fine, but they should not call themselves pastors. Words should be used correctly. The people who do the pastoring (shepherding and discipling) should be called pastors.

If Christian leaders want to be regional mangers or management consultants, that’s fine, but we should not call them apostles. The title "apostle" should be used for those who are "sent out", because that it is what it means.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, so we should be more careful about how we use words.