Suppose you are on the frontline of pastoral ministry. In that case, I’m sure you have either become the target of or have seen the various deconstructed attacks on principles of spiritual authority. Many of these attacks can seem to cherry-pick what is often considered a more aggressive view of spiritual authority that can sometimes highlight an elastic hermeneutic.
As a Pentecostal pastor, I have long sought, through prayer and earnest study, to understand my pastoral office and how spiritual authority is appropriately demonstrated and taught in the local context of my ministry. As is the case for most in the ministry, I can also attest to slight adjustments—sometimes larger ones—as I have aged, grown wiser, and faced the intersection between personal study and practice.
Indeed, if we were honest with ourselves, we repeat many nuances of biblical theology until, as time progresses, we make slight adjustments to following a more biblically realized practice. While these adjustments have never influenced any core doctrinal beliefs, there are quite a few adjustments I have made over the years that involve biblical context.
For example, following the early use of the first edition of the Search for Truth bible study, it was common for me to mention the “rope tied around the priest’s ankles” so that, if the bells on the priestly hem were not heard due to a priest being killed in the Tabernacle, they would “drag out the body.” While I still have yet to discover how this myth became hardened within the Pentecostal community[1], the fact that I believed it pressed me into the more profound study, and in such studies, a domino effect of sorts influenced much of my tabernacle understandings.
A few other contextual adjustments over the years:
- An accurate understanding of the commonly used phrase “pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” (see article)
- A proper understanding of the 11th-hour laborer from the parable of laborers hired to work in the vineyard.
- A vivid adjustment to “mantle theologies” and the “passing of mantles.”
- An adjusted understanding of foot-washing and its connection to the table of koinonia (also seeing an adjustment to my understanding of the actual table, not simply the cup and the bread).
- A total adjustment to the concept behind “the Spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet.” (see article)
- A total adjustment to the premise of “where two or three are gathered together.” (see article)
The backdrop to these slight or vivid adjustments came through studying the Word of God. The more I studied God’s word, the more I found myself challenged to analyze things I was saying, teaching, or preaching. This did not mean that I embarked on a mission of hubris that sought to call out and demean anyone who was found to engage in what I believe were contextual errors.
These understandings influenced much of what I did as a minister of the Gospel and catalyzed an even more rigorous study of God’s Word. As one who was tasked to teach and preach from the most important book ever given to mankind, I wanted to make sure that I was doing my very best to “rightly divide the word of God.” That said, one area of study that began to attract my earnest attention following several years of pastoring was the topic of spiritual authority and, in particular, the agency and operation of the pastor. In the next article (part two), I will outline and discuss the topic of spiritual authority before embarking on the third article, “The Role of the Pastor.”
[1] The only source that could likely attest to the fictional “rope” being tied to the priest’s leg is from the Zohar, a commentary that greatly influences beliefs of Kabbalah.