"And he gave some,apostles;and some,prophets;and some,evangelists;and some,pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:11 is as far as I know the single use of the word in the NT...And I believe,considering the punctuation,pastor and teacher are the same.This does not diminish the role of what we call pastors,but I believe that in the New Testament church,the roles might not have been as firmly fixed as they are in our minds..I commonly remind the folks that gather with us in our small country church, that they can call me what they want. They can accept my leadership if they wish. I TEACH strong doctrine! Sometimes they leave temporarily, (except for a nucleus) but some keep coming around and they have to hear truth if they are there. In my opinion, I am an elder that labors in the word and doctrine. I learned long ago, that I could not force anyone to do anything!
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