Where does the idea of a head pastor come from?

I've looked and looked in the New Testament but can't find a justification for a "head pastor" of a church in a position of preeminence over everyone else. Where did this idea come from?

From the head of a pastor.

Some scholars attribute formal Church governance to the Constantinian Church. Prior to that, there were Elders and Deacons but not the strong central organizations we see in todays church. There are some who claim that the Constantinian Church was a requirement for Governmental control.

Fascinating if controversial issue.

Hakawaka nailed it.

It's a manifestation of the fallen nature of humankind... the perceived need for a human "leader", and the desire of certain individuals to have power.

I believe that governance works best with a team of elders. Some people claim that "someone needs the power to make a final decision" but I disagree; I think that if there is a need for one person to make the final decision, the elders haven't done their job yet.

Seems to me that a pastor is already the head of the church and the term head pastor is redundant.

It probably stems from the example of old testament Israel which had a King, and which had a high priest.
But, this then would be a bad example to follow since in scripture all were imperfect, and many were outright bad.

New testament does not call for a "head pastor" except of that Jesus is our King, and High Priest and our Chief Overseer - and no one else can stand in place of this.

Is a head pastor the best arrangement for a church? There are a number of scriptural verses that suggest it might not be.

Luke 13:30
And indeed, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last."


A head pastor may start out by putting himself last by giving and and extending himself more than anyone else in the church. But if he is successful in growing the church he may eventually wind up putting himself first. He may become beloved by many and influential to many. If he is successful in everything he touches he will be drawn to enter into circles outside the church such as business and politics.

A head pastor may start out humble, but if he is successful he may end up with pride. We saw this both with David and Solomon that there immense successes led them to become worldly. Not that they were not God's children, but that their position as first they were in a very low position. So too is the head pastor arrangement flawed like this.

So we see this important point repeated in scripture for this very reason:

Matthew 20:16
So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Possibly arose through determining who the most mature Christians in a congregation are. Then just making a hierarchy based on who is most knowledgeable and/or spiritually mature Christian.

Seems logical the most experienced in any station would make the best leader due to their years of accumulated knowledge. It is like this in many organizations outside the church, too. I think this is just the model of leadership people tend to naturally prefer.

I have been a Christian for over 40 years I never used the term or saw the term " Head Pastor" I have used Senior Pastor,
Associate Pastor
Assistant Pastor
and Coe- Pastor

Never Head Pastor.

Paul was one of authority from God who wrote to PASTORS WHICH WE HAVE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Christ is the head of the church. Yet, He has placed Jesus has placed.

Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, and pastor/teachers, as Eph chapter 4:11-13 states.


11 And He(Christ) Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Don't forget the 7 letters written to the 7 churches in the book of Revelations. They where addressed to the angel or pastor.

It is the residual influence of the RCC as a continuation of its hierarchical structure. The ministry of pastor is one of the five fold ministries to the church. It was never meant to be a role of authority over the local church. It was when the formalized established church instituted priests to replace the "body ministry" of members, that the notion of pre-eminent pastor came into being. Most organized denominational churches have continued the formalism which continues to quench the Holy Spirit in churches. This is why these churches are merely pretending that the Holy Spirit is working with them, when He doesn't work with a pre-eminent "pastor" who operates as a one man band with the membership sitting passively in their pews.

Romans 12:1-2
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Galatians 6:3
For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Galatians 6:6
6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

I never saw these biblical principles applied at any company/organization I ever worked for.

Amen. To be clear, I am not suggesting that the role of head pastor is correct because it isn't biblical. I am just saying how/why I think it exists.

Me neither.

Church leadership and government is a difficult thorny issue. As seen in the conversation, we tend to react to any "head pastor" who wields power or influence selfishly. And rightly so - Christ, not man, is the head of the church.

But pastors/ministers are Biblical and is how Paul and the other NT writers portray church government. Those who reject pastoral leadership often go one of two ways:
(1) A group of "elders" (various titles are used) who form a board who govern the church. They then fire/hire the pastor at will. The downfall of this is that often these elders hold the sway of the church by seniority, monetary success, influence, etc.
(2) Some try to govern the church "by the people." This is a democracy - rule by the people. But then the majority rule the church -- and decisions made by such a "majority" may or may not be Biblical.

I think the answer is to have a plural ministry who together as a team lead the church. On teams such as this, each one on the team will have differing gifts - one may have the gift of "administration" and so he naturally calls meetings, organizes, etc. Another may have the gift of preaching and does most of the Sunday sermons. Another may be an exhorter who does well with relationships. In such a system of leadership the one with the gift of "administration" often becomes the "leader" by default" - but all of the team of pastors should have equal authority and influence and each has an equal "vote".

Elder, bishop, teacher, shepherd, pastor: both Paul and Peter write about these. Head pastor, associate pastor, assistant pastor are titles not used in the Bible, but can be inferred from some of the language, particularly by Peter when he writes: "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock" ... "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, 1 Peter 5:2-3, 5.

Where is the idea of one guy heading the church called 'the pastor.' Jesus is called the Head of the church.

The apostles, Paul and Barnabas, appointed more than one elder in each church in Acts 14. The elders were appointed from among those in each church.

Where did it come from? If you really want to know a little about the history of where the senior pastor came from, read this post. It is a bit lengthy, but possibly something many of you never knew before.

In the Bible, we see Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every church. Notice 'elders', plural. They were appointed from within the local church, not hired in from the outside as many professional clergy are. Elders in scripture are also called bishops. See Acts 20:28 (c.f. I Peter 5:3 and look up 'oversight' in Greek.) Acts 20:28 tells elders to 'pastor' the flock of God. Look up 'tend' or 'feed' in that verse in Greek and compare to 'pastor' in Ephesians 4:11.

By the second century, there are references to churches having one leader over the elders called a 'bishop'. The letters attributed to Ignatius use that language. Clement uses 'bishop' to refer to elders like the Bible does. But the one bishop over the elders seems pretty widespread. This was not one 'senior pastor' per congregation necessarily. The bishop is on the city level. In the second century, some of them could have met in one place. The Bible does not teach the system of one bishop over the elders of a city. It is based on church tradition.

As the message of Christ went westward, it came to the Celts in Britain, and then to the Anglo-Saxons whose ancestors had conquered Britain, eventually. At this time, Anglo-Saxons could communicate with Saxons in what is now Germany. The Gospel translates called elders 'elders', or the Old English equivalent. Luke 7:3 says 'aldras'. But the Anglo-Saxons began to use a word derived from the Greek word for elder, which is presbuteros. Presbuteros became prester, then priest.

So we end up with this confusing use of language where the word for 'priest' came from the word for elder, and they use the word 'priest' for those Old Testament kohenim descendants of Aaron who offered sacrifices, and also for the elders of the church. And the missionaries in the Anglo-Saxon mission exported their terminology to what is now Germany to Saxons who spoke a slightly different dialect of the same language.

By the Reformation, 'the priesthood of all believers' as an issue. In Latin elders were 'seniorium'. Acts 20:17 in the Latin calls elders 'maiores'. In the Vulgate, Old Testament priests were referred to with the word 'sacerdos.' Now, RCC theology gives priests/elders a more sacerdotal function than certain Protestant groups do, including the idea that the priest must bless the Lord's Supper to transform it into Christ's body.

It was the practice of the Roman Catholic church to have one parish priest to perform the Lord's Supper.

When Protestants came along in Germany, German had a word for 'priest' that, like English, referred to those Old Testament guys who did sacrifices along with the officiant in church meetings. So Luther wrote about the 'priesthood of all believers.'

When the Reformed movement developed in Geneva, where John Calvin was the most prominent historical figure, they redubbed their church elders as 'pastors', a word also found in the Bible. John Calvin believed in having some kind of lay leadership in the Christian community. They looked up historical examples from Greek-speaking Christian communities in Syria and North Africa in the 4th century that had community leaders called 'gerousia' in Greek. This also translated as 'elders.' The Spartans had used the term, also, for their city elders.

So they set up a city government with city councilmen they called elders. They called their church elders 'pastors.' John Knox was a big fan of John Calvin. They were contemporaries. The early Scottish Presbyterians modeled their national church structure on the city of Geneva. They even borrowed the extra-biblical unordained 'elder' role and turned it into a church position.

Early on, the Scottish Presbyterians would cite Bible verses about Biblical elders to refer to 'pastors' and considered their 'elders' to be 'governments' in I Corinthians 12, citing that verse. But over time, they got confused and started associating their lay elders with Biblical 'elders.'

Presbyterianism was influential on various groups of evangelicals in the west. So, under the influence of Geneva and Scotland, many churches have a leader they call 'pastor.' Under the influence of the Roman Catholic church which often had one parish priest, many churches have one man called 'the pastor.' And this developed into the tradition of having the 'senior pastor.' There are plenty of evangelical churches that are influenced by Anglicanism, Methodism, and other groups that have a hierarchical system with 'the bishop' over the elders, which draws from church tradition rather than anything explicit in scripture. This may be the historical root, combined with Reformed influence, of having one leader as the leader, and using the title 'pastor', and having the title 'senior pastor.'

I read an article once that went through Acts and showed all the church decisions made by 'the brethren.' It was rather extensive. The brethren sent Paul here and there. They decided various things. It is worth looking up. The point was the elders did not just make all the decisions. Even Paul was open to consultation and yielded to the decisions of the brethren at times. He submitted to the elders in Jerusalem, apparently.

When the issue of Gentile circumcision became a hot topic, members of the congregation were allowed to speak and address the issue in Acts 15, before the apostles and elders met.

It is also important to note that in an early stage of church development, churches were churches but had no elders. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every church in Acts 14. These churches were churches before they had elders.

it is also important to note that the actual teachings and commandments for how to do church in the New Testament do not order the people to sit and listen to sermons. In Romans 12, Paul instructs the one gifted to prophesy to prophesy, the one gifted to teach to teach, and the one gifted to exhort to exhort. In I Corinthians 14, the speakers in church are 'every one of you', who may sing a psalm, have a doctrine, have a revelation, tongue, or interpretation. The passage gives instructions for one gifted to speak in tongues and for one to interpret. The prophets are to speak 'two or three' and the other are to judge. One sitting by my prophesy and the one speaking should be silent. The passage says, 'For ye may all prophesy one by one."

There is no mention of a bishop or elder in this one long passage on what to do in church. It may be that none were appointed in Corinth yet, but there is no indication in the New Testament that when elders are appointed, other members of the body of Christ should stop using their gifts.

The idea that elders or pastors are light years above other believers, that they should do the praying at community events and pretty much all the speaking in church except for announcements, isn't found in scripture. Rather, they are to be examples to the flock, and one area to be examples is in how they use their spiritual gifts. I Peter 4 commands believers to use their spiritual gifts to minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Peter includes speaking the word of God as an example of using our gifts.
Hebrews 10:25 is the one verse preachers use to say to go to church, but it doesn't say to 'go to church' but rather not to forsake assembling. It implies what we are to do when we assemble. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together...but exhort one another, and this is in the context of verse 24 which says to provoke one another to love and to good works.

And if we look in Acts, we see 'brethren' making a lot of decision, the saints being able to address a church issue. We also see leaders actually leading. The church people could address the church assembly about Gentile circumcision (the example given was of Pharisees with the wrong idea), but the apostles and elders met and determined what they sensed the Spirit was speaking on the issue. When it came to feeding widows, the church chose the seven, and the apostles laid hands on them. It was not a case of a small group of leaders making all the decisions, but congregation and leaders together.

And we see not examples of 'voting'. When we vote, the majority crush the will of the minority. The Bible says to all be of the same heart, to all be of the same mind. Consensus is better than voting. it is better that we sense the will of the Spirit or all agree to a wise course of action. And if it was not your top idea for what to do, you can still submit to the group and allow for God to work in other ways than the idea you had. The

Would an elder, as mentioned in Acts 14, be considered a pastor?