Sometimes at the nursing home, after we finish up our little church gathering, a resident will come up to me and say, “I liked your sermon.” Immediately, after saying thank you, I say, “Oh, but it wasn’t a sermon. As a woman, I am not a preacher or a pastor. We just read the Bible together and talked about it.” I prefer to call our little gatherings Sunday school, but “church” is easier for everyone to relate to, so usually we just call it church.
The Church, of course, is more than a physical building. Those who lived in biblical times would probably have been confused by our common way of saying, “We’re going to church today.” The Greek word for Church is ekklesia, which means assembly or called-out ones. In Romans 16:5, Paul says, “Greet the church that is in their house.” The Church is the body of Christ, and He is its head. Ephesians 1:22–23 says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” So in reality, our gatherings in the dining room every Sunday at 2pm ARE in fact “church.”
It’s my personal belief that women should not be pastors which causes me to avoid calling what we do on Sundays “church,” because the next place one’s mind goes is that the person who is up front doing the talking is the “preacher” or “pastor.” I am by nature a teacher, and as a former school teacher and homeschool mom, it feels more comfortable for me to refer to our worship gatherings at the nursing home as “Sunday school.” But am I just playing a game of Twister with the semantics?
The word pastor comes from a Latin word which means shepherd. (That’s why if you look at a menu at a Mexican restaurant, you’ll probably see an entree with the words al pastor next to it. That means the meat is cooked “shepherds style.”) Just as with the word church, time, tradition, and culture have reshaped the way many people think about the word pastor. The Bible defines pastor as more of a job description than that of an office or position. Without getting too far in the weeds of word studies and the theology of church leadership, suffice it to say that being a shepherd is just part of the duties of someone who fills the office of church elder or overseer.
But I think maybe there’s a small sense in which we are all pastors. Do you teach children–your own or other people’s? Do you lead a small group of people who study and pray? Do you have people in your care? Proverbs 27:23 says, “Know well the condition of your flocks.” What does a shepherd do? A shepherd protects his flock; he leads them to safety. He makes sure they have food sources and water. In a figurative sense, if you are caring for someone in this way, someone who is weak, vulnerable, and in need of protection and provision, then you are, in that sense of the word, a pastor, a shepherd to that person. Again, I’m not using the word the way it is most often used; not everyone is permitted to be an ordained, preaching leader of God’s people (in my opinion). And the most important thing someone who is shepherding people in this way can do is to lead them to the only Wise and True Good Shepherd.
We do that with our children when they are young. We teach them about Jesus and pray they will choose to follow Him. Alternatively, we might disciple a group of women or men by helping them learn to study the scriptures for themselves and holding them accountable in their walk with Christ as we keep pointing them to Him. We might be a teacher in a school or even a university, and we do everything we can to model what it looks like to follow Jesus. Even praying with a friend who is struggling is an act of guiding them toward the Good Shepherd, and in that small way, is a kind of shepherding.
These are really just acts of doing what Christ has called us all to do as believers, regardless of gender or age. It’s just another way of saying it. We are to be His ambassadors in the world. His light. His ministers, serving Him by serving others. The many “one another” verses in the Bible clearly speak to this. We are called to encourage, instruct, and serve one another. (see Gal. 5:13, Romans 15:14, 1 Thess 5:11, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Cor. 4:1) This happens every time I go to the nursing home. My ultimate job is to help each person there take the hand of Christ.
I heard of a church (not in my state of KY) that will not allow its members to go to the nursing home to shepherd in this way. They will only allow their ordained church pastors to go. Unfortunately, that only serves to fuel the belief that not everyone is qualified to do ministry work. And that’s simply not true. If you are considering going to a nursing home but worry that you aren’t “qualified,” I would simply ask: Can you hold someone’s hand and pray with them? Can you listen to someone as they share their fears with you? Can you read a Bible verse and share a personal story of encouragement? That, brothers and sisters in Christ, is all it takes. Be a friend to one. And point others to the One True Friend.