During the Covid years, I was invited to speak at an online conference organized by a ministry that had given itself a rather snooty title with English connotations.
Two days before the conference, we had a video meeting to finalize the technical aspects of the connection, the running of the conference, my contribution and so on.
One of the things he absolutely wanted to know was the title I was to be given during the interview that would kick off my first intervention.
I had a hard time getting him to understand that I didn’t want to be given any title whatsoever.
But you are an apostle! You have planted churches in Madagascar, Reunion, France, the USA… I refused the title… So we could call you “Pastor”… I refused too. Out of desperation, he ended up calling me “Brother”, which would eventually be the most appropriate, although…
When I meet my brother, I don’t call him “Brother Renaud”! I call him Renaud!
If we call each other brother, it’s because we have the same Father. In the family, we don’t need a title!Throughout the online conference, I also refused to call him by the title he gave himself, any more than I called the other guests by the title he gave them.
I never heard from him again.
Is this was that important ?
A friend told me later: “You could have played the game! Well, no, I couldn’t, nor did I want to.
Is giving a title to a ministry such a terrible thing, you may ask? I sincerely believe so, at least in the context of the Gospel.
During my 30 years of ministry, I met a few people who wanted to call me “pastor”, in Madagascar and the United States among other places. Being the founder of the churches in Madagascar, it was quite easy for me to impose the fact that I was called Mikaël. American Christians, on the other hand, seemed to insist on the title.
They explained to me that we called our doctors doctors. So logically, you should address your pastor by his title, to honor him. While people seemed genuinely sincere in saying this, it didn’t stop them from dragging the pastor through the mud if he ever disappointed them.
Another friend, also in the ministry, once told me it was “impostor syndrome”. I simply didn’t feel up to the role, which is why I was uncomfortable with the title. The devil wanted me to believe that I didn’t fit in, and obviously, coming from him, that was an outright lie.
That didn’t convince me either. The more the years went by, the more these titles irritated me. But I couldn’t come up with a rational explanation for this feeling. Why was it so uncomfortable for me?
An attitude of heart .
As I studied the New Testament, I realized that the notion of authority, as intended by Christ, was not based on a question of ability to lead, but on a quality of heart. “Accept my requirements and let yourselves be instructed by me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your soul. Indeed, my demands are good and my burden light”.
In a world where the Messiah’s followers were weighed down by the Roman occupiers as well as by the temple in Jerusalem, with burdens that no one could bear, Jesus comes and announces that his yoke will be light. Why is this? Because he is gentle and humble of heart, and he will take on the real burden that oppresses people, that of sin.
I believe that God gave the 5 ministries, as well as the many other callings, to be as he was, gifts to the church, not “authorities” in the sense we usually mean.
When Jesus appointed his disciples as apostles, he gave them authority over demons, over disease, over the elements… but not over people.
The fivefold ministries.
Apostle means “sent”. Another word for it would be “missionary”! A prophet is a messenger from God, but that doesn’t give him authority over the person receiving the message. The evangelist cannot force anyone to enter the Kingdom. The pastor is a shepherd, there to look after the sheep that belong to his master and lead them to greener pastures. As for the teacher, he dispenses his teaching of the word, but cannot force anyone to follow him.
This list is not a catalog of ranks in the Kingdom, but a list of servants who are there to bring the body of Christ to maturity.
But who will have the authority to lead the people?
Paul, the apostle of Christ, tells us that quite clearly : a college of elders and deacons, among whom we find ministries, as at Antioch. These are the ones who, with their gifts exercised within their sphere of authority, lead the whole local church. They are the facilitators of the Church, in which each disciple can exercise his or her ministry.
“When you come together, each of you can bring a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, a language or an interpretation. Let everything be done for edification”.
The notion of hierarchy that has polluted our churches for centuries comes from Constantine’s re-establishment of the role of “priest” in place of the ministries established by Paul.
Often, and wrongly, when people asked me what a pastor was, I’d reply: it’s like a priest, but among Protestants.Everyone understood what I was talking about.But I was wrong!
A priest is someone who acts as an intermediary between men and their god, enabling the former to offer their sacrifice to the latter. A priest is someone who is entrusted with a sacred function and performs the essential acts of a religious cult. Priest of Isis, Apollo, Gallic priests. The bloody sacrifices that the priests [in Peru] offered to the sun (Faure, Hist. art, 1912, p.238).
Each Christian became a priest for himself.
There’s none of that in the ministries established by God through Paul’s teachings.
Every Christian has become a priest for himself. He needs no priest. We followers of Christ are a kingdom of priests. We are not called to be intermediaries, but simply signposts!
Too many of Christ’s ministers today are stepping outside the prerogatives the Lord gave them when He called them, granting themselves an authority over people that they have not received from God. As long as this will remain the case, they will prevent people from reaching the maturity the Lord expects of them, and those who do will often be forced to leave their assembly if they want to serve in turn.
Mikaël Réale
[1] Matthieu 11:29
[2] 1 Corinthiens 14 : 26