Do you hafta go through the pastor?

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Theophilus

I don't think the question is: "are pastors Biblical?" Or: "do they have authority?"

But rather is the sola pastora system man's invention or God's. What authority do pastors have? What are the limits that are breached in this day and age? To what extent will there be an accounting if the authority is wielded amiss and the office out of bounds in structure and accountability?

Originally Posted by BrotherEastman

So, maybe you could shed a little more light on the subject? We know that pastors are biblical, but to what extenet?

In the New Testament we find that the churches have "elders" (you could call them "pastors" as well). But the pattern appears to be that a group of leaders were at the helm of the local churches.

The "bishops" were literally "overseers." Their function would eventually morph into what we saw in the early Catholic Church with bishops and bishoprics. This of course led to secular authority being wielded by churchmen and the abuses that were so prominent later in medieval times; a case where one man simply had too much power.

Some would argue that similar abuses can be observed on the more local scale with the "one pastor" model of church government.