Why I'm happy to NOT be a senior pastor
by Jesse Johnson

My official job title is "Teaching Pastor." Before I came to Immanuel Bible Church, I had always simply imagined myself stepping into the role of a "Senior Pastor," but had never given the nuances of the title much thought. My goal was simply to shepherd the flock of God through loving and preaching, and I had simply taken for granted that the best way to do that was through being a Senior Pastor.

Obviously, the Senior is not a modifier to pastor in the Bible. But I had already come to terms with the fact that job titles did not have to have their roots in the apostolic era to be helpful today (I had publicly whined about my previous job title, "Local Outreach Pastor" here). Nevertheless, many of the pastors I respect and admire are "Senior Pastors," and I confess I had never given much thought to the merits of the title.
But then when Immanuel Bible and I began dating, the elders made it very clear that they were not looking for a traditional senior pastor. At first this gave me pause (ok, about 2 seconds of pause), but in light of their explanations, I was persuaded that for this church, their approach was correct. Let me explain why:
The elders at IBC are convinced that a model of a plurality of elder leadership is the biblical model for the church. To ensure a plurality, at the staff level there is a different elder who oversees the finances, another who handles the preaching, and another that manages the staff. That way one elder is not giving leadership to dollars, doctrine, and people. Practically, this was very appealing to me. That means that as the teaching pastor, I got to focus on preaching and teaching, rather than on budgets and personnel. Obviously all three of those categories overlap, but the principle that no one elder runs all of those areas ensures a plurality.
There is biblical precedent for this approach. In the New Testament, I am persuaded that the model of elder plurality is not only the description of the early church, but the prescription for every church. It is both the model and the mandate. So in one sense, all elders are equal; they all are the leadership of the church, unanimity is a sign of harmony in the leadership, and all elders share that burden corporately.
But there is a distinction made between all elders, and those who devote themselves to the regular preaching and teaching of the word (2 Timothy 4:2, Titus 2:7 for example). The verse that makes this most clear is 1 Timothy 5:17: "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching." There, Paul commands that the elders as a whole should be respected, while a certain subset of elders are particularly called out-those that regularly preach. In other words, there are elders, and some of those elders (but not all) are regular preachers of the word in the corporate setting. (By the way, check out how the Holman Bible renders 1 Timothy 5:17: "The elders who are good leaders should be considered worthy of an ample honorarium,especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching").
And of course, there is the description in Ephesians 4:11 that God gave the church shepherds, and some of those shepherds are also the teachers. In fact, this verse is where John MacArthur gets his title from: "Pastor-teacher." So in a sense, "teaching pastor" is a variation of that phrase, and it is one that I think threads the balance between the concept of plurality, and the concept of a pastor that is the regular teacher.
For curiosity sake, here are some other titles from well known pastors:
David Platt is simply "Pastor"
Mark Dever (along with just about every Baptist pastor I know) goes with "Senior Pastor"
So does Chuck Smith
Voddie Baucham is the "Pastor of Preaching"
John Piper one ups him with "Pastor for Preaching and Vision"
Ligon Duncan shows his denominational flair with the title "Senior Minister"
RC Sproul combines all of the above (and he is just about the only one cool enough to pull this off) with: "Senior Minister of Preaching and Teaching." He must have an associate that oversees vision.
Any other titles for the preaching pastor? Share them below: