Is Pastorial an assingment or profession?

[SNR AP/REV SALIMON FOLAKOYE]

Is Pastorial an assignment or profession?

[A.W. Bowman]

I cannot speak for the church throughout the world, but here in the west and especially in America, we have a great many ministers who have made their calling a profession. These ministers have done violence to the word of God and perverted both their calling (if in truth they have been called) and they have stood as a barrier between the saints and their God and even have used the believers as merchandise (as their source of income, even to become personally wealthy).

I also believe that as the day of the Lord approaches even closer, the number of these wolves is growing and affecting both the unwary believer and spiritual seeker, as well as those ministers who are struggling to bring the local flock to spiritual maturity.

When one percent of the local police becomes corrupt, no policeman, anywhere, can be looked upon without suspicion.

When a teacher molests a student, every teacher has become untrustworthy in the eyes of parents.

So it is with ministers, i.e. servants of Jesus Christ and His physical body in this world who have placed themselves between the saints and their God!

We cannot serve the head while abusing the rest of the body! We are not true servants of Christ when we speak blessings to the head, while we are cutting up and eating the master's own body. No! Those who do such things are murders, not servants. True disciples of Jesus who sit in assemblies such as this are saved in spite of the leadership, not because of it. The saints grow and mature because of their faith in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, because that combined power is greater than that of the corrupt leadership. Witness those who first came out of – and later those few who actually survived – the likes of a Jim Jones, Heaven's Gate, etc. disasters. Or, those saints who received their salvation while sitting under an immoral preacher. Or, those saints who received spiritual and physical blessings while sitting under a pastor who demanded their money and their personal allegiance.

I hit hard on the moral aspects of the ministry failings because this is the expected end of those ministers who have turned their calling from God into a human based religious profession. Each of us must decide for ourselves what we shall be, a servant to the master’s body or the master over it, we cannot be both!

[A.W. Bowman]

One additional note: Is it possible for one to become a "professional servant"? Yes. See John 10:11-14 (in context). The danger is that when one looks to the church as the source of their support and physical survival (income), what happens all too frequently is that the ministers become entangled in money matters and their focus becomes blurred or even misdirected.

The bottom line: A hired servant works for what he/she can get from their employment (physical rewards). A servant of love labors our of - and for - the reward of a love returned (no price tag on this).