Pastors and teachers and kids

Last week our church blessed the teachers of our fellowship who teach at the church's school. During the course of the message, the pastor read from Ephesians 4:11 where Paul lists the gifts that Christ gave to the church. Kai… aujto;ß e“dwken tou;ß me…n a˙postovlouß, tou;ß de… profhvtaß, tou;ß de… eujaggelista◊ß, tou;ß de… poime√naß kai… didaska◊louß, (for translation see your Bible :) 

In the Greek the article which we take for granted was not done so by the Greeks. In the Greek it was important as designating different uses of nouns in a sentence. If the article preceded a noun it was an important designation. Usually it meant that the noun was the subject of the sentence. A famous case is found in chapter one of the Gospel of John, verse 1.The last phrase in verse one," the word was God", in the Greek the order is completely reversed from the way we would arrange or do translated it in English. The Greeks put the predicate nominative  Theos first and the subject ho logos last. Since the article with a noun is an indicator of the subject it could be put any where in the sentence, not so in English. I am diverting from the simple point I would like to make. In Ephesians 4 Paul lists, what is known in Pentecostal circles, as the five fold ministries. They are; the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and the pastor and teachers. Notice that shepherds and teachers are governed by the same article. This puts them into the same ministry. Paul does not separate these two ministries. We have a tendency to want to put these in separate categories, the ministry of pastor and the ministry of the teacher, Paul did not do this. Actually in 1 Corinthians 12:28 Paul just lists, apostles, prophets and teachers. He does not lists "pastors". This word "pastors" is from the Vulgate, not the Greek. The true Greek noun meaning of  poime√naß is shepherd, or protector. The verb form is most impressively found in the words of Christ to Peter on the shores of Galilee after his resurrection. (The verb is found elsewhere in the NT also). 

Our pastor, shepherd last Sunday correctly connected the two ministries together. He said that the teachers are with the kids all day and do more shepherding (of the youth and sometimes indirectly the family) than do some of the pastors who see them once or twice a week. I think he was dead on, and not just scripturally. Our nations youth have been in trouble for years and one of the main reasons is that we have take the "protection" quality away from public teaching. Our teachers need to be empowered to "shepherd" their flock of God, on a daily basis. Much of learning is being able to discipline correctly, and lovingly. Because of the weirdness in our society we have abandoned our kids. Christ told Peter who had withdrawn from the flock of God, if he loved Christ to Shepherd the flock.I stand with my pastors proclamation that the teachers are going to be true shepherds, protectors of their flock thereby fulfilling the law of Christ. Paul gives the reason for these ministries in verse 15 and 16 which underlines how important these ministries are to the church and the Kingdom of God in this earth.