19/02/2026
The False Weight of a Wrong Title
“The overwhelming majority of churches I’ve ministered in call everyone on staff “pastor.” Pastors’ conferences. Pastor so-and-so. Walk into a church and the first question is always, “Where’s the pastor?” I graduated with a four-year Bible degree from a university that never once mentioned or acknowledged modern-day apostles or prophets. Anyone who traveled and preached was labeled an evangelist. Teachers were reduced to academics and confined to classrooms.
Here’s the problem: when we plant churches, develop ministries, and train leaders through a pastoral-only lens, we make it nearly impossible to establish New Testament churches according to the biblical pattern. That narrow lens breeds suspicion, confusion, and even hostility toward the other four gifts Jesus gave His body (Ephesians 4:11). I cannot count the number of times I’ve preached for men who carry the title “senior pastor” but who, in reality, are apostles. No big deal, right? Wrong.
Misidentifying the grace on their lives sets them up for years of
frustration, turmoil, and often burnout—if they even make it that far. Ignorance, or a theology unwilling to embrace the apostolic ministry, traps them in a role they were never called to fill. And the weight of false expectations—both their own and those imposed by others — eventually crushes them.”
Jeremiah Johnson
(page 93 “The New Testament Church”)
