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Questions about church leaders?

 Submitted: 11/7/2013
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Question: Hello, I have four questions? 1. Can people become apostles today? 2. Can a church have more than one pastor where one is the pastor of the church but the other is a member but is also a pastor? 3. Does the Bible say that if we have a pastor of our church, that we have to call others whatever the pastor calls them. Meaning if a member is a pastor, we can't call him that. We have to call him brother or sister unless the pastor of the church say otherwise? 4. If the Bible doesn't teach that, how can I as a Christian stand up to the pastor in a respectable way?
Answer: 1. Yes, there are lots of apostles today. The term 'apostle' means one who is sent out to represent the interests of another. In a general sense, anyone who is properly sent out to plant an assembly or establish a ministry is an apostle. For more on this topic, please see our article called 'God’s Plan for Oversight the Glorious Church' found of Shelf 2 of the Apostolic Free Library on this website.

2. Not only can a church have more than one pastor, but we believe every established assembly ought to have more than one pastor. Please see our article 'The New Testament Elders' on Shelf 2 of the Apostolic Free Library.

3. In a biblically structured leadership team, all the pastors are equal in authority and work together to shepherd the flock of God's people (see Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:1-3). They can be called pastors or elders or overseers. The terminology doesn't really matter as long as the structure is correct.

4. Whenever you approach a spiritual leader over a sensitive issue, you want to be well-prepared to articulate your viewpoint and you want to be extremely courteous and respectful. No arguing or confrontational language. Be prepared to be misunderstood.


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