When Paul called the Ephesian elders to "pay careful attention to...the flock (Acts 20:28) he was calling them to nurture the church and to lead the people to the Lord. This call is for every pastor who gives leadership to the local church. This calling, due to a misunderstanding of spiritual leadership, has led some pastors to hold an ungodly meaning of the church being their church. When a pastor calls the church his people this can mean one of two things: 1) they truly believe that they are stewards of the greatest most valuable group of people on earth - those purchased by the blood of Christ or 2) they truly believe the church is their organization to run as they see fit and for their own ends.
Clearly point 1 is the correct posture but many have taken the second point as their point of reference. The one we choose is a heart issue. We cannot know anyone's heart but Jesus does teach us how we can make distinctions between a false and true prophet (leader/pastor): “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits...." (Matthew 7:15–16). Let me highlight five brief ways I think pastors who view the church as theirs for their own ends operate. These operations show their heart.
1. They Do Not Engage In A Disciplined Study Of the Word
Paul stated that he "did not shrink from declaring... anything that was profitable" nor did he shrink from declaring...the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:20, 27). In other words, while Paul was with them, he did not, at any time, hold back from giving them everything he believed was profitable for them from the Word of God. Can you imagine the kind of study that Paul had to engage in to accomplish this? Yes, he was a Jew and, yes, he would have studied and memorized the Torah but there is so much more to this.
Paul was not merely reciting the Torah or the prophets or merely the promises of God. Paul understood and explained the detailed implications of how the Old Covenant pointed to and was fulfilled in Christ. He is showing how the church - this mystery once hidden, is to be understood as the exact purpose and eternal intention of God rather than a plan B. What Paul was doing was no mere recitation; this is expositional revelation (Ephesians 3:8-11)! The whole council of God was now centered on the message of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18ff). Therefore, its center was on the redemptive fulfillment of all the promises of God, and the offices of prophet, priest and King, the sacrificial system as well as the intention and end of the Law - all are now wrapped up and completed in Christ. This was not only deep study, but this was also a tough message to preach to the world.
Here is the challenge of it all: what Paul did for the Ephesian elders he expected them to be and do the same for the Ephesian believers. After he says he did not shrink back from declaring the whole counsel of God he commands the elders, "Pay careful attention to...the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers" (v28). In other words, paying attention to the flock means declaring to them the whole counsel of God. Paul had given them Word that was profitable, which meant he imparted wisdom that gave them an advantage to achieve the purposes that the Spirit had called them to. In essence, Paul was saying he gave them everything he had that he knew would be applicable for their roles. This, they were to do for the church.
Paul would say to Timothy who was pastoring the Ephesian church, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," (2 Timothy 3:16). Though the Greek word here for profitable is different than in Acts 20:20 it has the same implication. Timothy is reminded that the "All Scripture" - the whole counsel of God is the only way the people of God can be equipped to live in this world as faithful expositions of Christ. Then, immediately following these words, Paul tells Timothy "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (2 Timothy 4:1–2).
Preaching this profitable Word was to be Timothy's focus as the pastor at Ephesus above all things as is the heart of any faithful preacher/elder (Acts 6:4). He was to preach it and he was to explain it so that, by it, the people of God could grow in their sanctification and Christlikeness. To achieve this, he was not merely to preach sermons that were Saturday night specials, nor was he to stand and glaze Bible over a political discourse. He could not stand on his bully pulpit nor could he merely pontificate. He had to preach the Word and the Word only and the only way this could happen and transform lives, societies and cultures was if he studied. Therefore, Paul told Timothy, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
Men who see the church as their church will study everything else over the study of the Word of God. They will cite scripture (they must do this to appear pastoral) but the whole of the message will be secularized jargon or motivational madness. They will sound relevant and, therefore, they will seem useful since, in these postmodern days, relevance appears to be the measuring rod of truth. There will not be the faithful and careful exegesis (mining the text to see what is there) that is called for. Instead, there will merely be the imposition of the imagination where the Word says that which the speaker wants (needs) it to say or mean, and not what the Spirit intended when He wrote through men (2 Peter 1:19-21).
Many within the church are weak and weakened by relevant messages that make happiness on earth and with the world a Christian right. The call to not love the world and to forego the pursuit of riches is all but nonexistent in most Protestant churches. That is because some pastors have chosen the ministry and have not been chosen by the Spirit to be overseers (Acts 20:28). The church is their place of employment. It is the “ground central” of their personal and worldly ambitions and therefore, they study the culture to advance their name and status rather than the Word of God to advance God's kingdom.
This is why pastors must pay close attention to themselves. They must study their souls, examining it by the standards of the Word of God. The people of God need truth... peddlers of ideas veiled in truth. That sounds eerily like another peddler of the Word; Satan himself (Genesis 3 and Matthew 4). All of us, every single one of us, could easily be caught and held captive by the idea that we run the church and it is ours. If we are not studying our souls and the Word, we may already be there.