I have a question - why do we call the pastor an "under-pastor?" It is common you know. And yet there is no Biblical basis for it that I am aware of. I've wondered for years who would want to lower Christ from the place of Great Shepherd (or Good Shepherd) down to just "Shepherd." Then we lower the man of God over God's flock to under-shepherd.
Now I don't have a fetish about this and I think I know why some might go along with this. As they would see it, it puts Christ as the True Shepherd of His churches and keeps the human pastor/shepherd under Christ. I could not agree more that Christ is the rightful and only True Shepherd. But even there, I must use a title designating Him apart from what the Bible calls the shepherd, the human pastor.
It does seem that the Protestants use this term in their writings and speeches more than historic Baptists do, but then we read their literature and books, and listen to them and pick up their terms.
My question is this: Why do pastors need to be called "under-pastors" when there is no Biblical use of such a term at all? If we are going to hold the Bible literally, we should call the pastor just that, and Christ the Great Pastor or Shepherd. Just a thought.
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