Titles Matter
I grew up knowing only a few pastors. I knew my home pastor and I knew a few area pastors who my family knew through various church dealings. They were all called “Pastor” by my family. No confusion, no problems.
Going off to college at Concordia University, Nebraska opened up a whole can of worms. Suddenly there were lots of people with “Rev.” in front of their names. What to do? Some people just called them all “Pastor” and went with it. Some referred to them as “Dr.” or “Professor” if the situation warranted.
It all was put in perspective when during my sophomore year I was beginning my Christian Doctrine I course that was being taught by an area pastor. Someone asked what we should call him and he replied “Professor.” Someone asked why and he replied, “Because I’m not your pastor. You have pastors back home and you have a chaplain here at Concordia. I’m your professor.” Those few sentences by that professor really hit home for me. It bugs me to hear students call their professors “pastor” because they are not pastors. They are teachers and doctors of the church who have been called to teach the faith. While noble and necessary, they are not shepherds of God’s flock. This also goes for those who work in our synodical administration and organizations. They aren’t pastors. Period.
This has affected my personal practice. I do my best (and do often slip up) when referring to those faculty and staff members at the seminary by “Professor,” “Dr.” or Reverend. They have honorable callings and duties and I don’t want to detract from them, but they are not pastors and do not claim to be one, so why give them the title?
We have pastors and we should make use of them and honor them. Why detract from their noble callings by giving away their titles to those not serving a congregation?
About The Author
I was asked on twitter… “What about the flipside? Those called and ordained by God but not officially titled by any earthly organization?”
My response to that is… how do we know who God has called apart from those issued calls from a Christian congregation? We don’t. We believe that our system of issuing calls through a local congregation is from God and apart from that we have no promise or guarantee.
Amen and Amen!
Very nice post. It’s surprising how many folks get annoyed by the proper use of honorifics, preferring to focus in on a favored title than a correct one. It belies a fundamental misunderstanding of the Lutheran Doctrine of Vocation, IMO.
-ghp