The Pastor: God's Representative Among Men

By Dr. Akeam Amoniphis Simmons

The Pastor, is a book giving a description of the pastors job, and what relationship that his members should have with him. It outlines, from the bible, how the parishioners can achieve many blessings, or curses just by the way that they treat their pastor.

So, often in the church, the man that God has put in our lives, is our first channel to blessings and pleasing God. This book conveys the how to get Gods attention by how you treat your pastor. You also discover how virtually important it is for you to personally know your pastor, and he knows you.

It also outlines the course of action that the congregation is to take when having controversial problems with their pastor-A must have in your library! If you want a direct link to God, know how to relate to your pastor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491758984

Dr. Akeam Amoniphis Simmons

Dr. Akeam Simmons is a prolific writer; he has written seventeen other books, amongst them, is his other high volume book on race relations- Run or Die, the systematic annihilation of the black man. He delves into the subconscious mind of the reader and extracts thoughts that were heretofore hidden beneath a haze of common day existentialism and solipsism. A must read for those seeking a higher consciousness and awakening amongst the masses.

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Copyright © 2015 Dr. Akeam Amoniphis Simmons.

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-5897-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-5898-4 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 01/19/2015

Contents

Foreword

Chapter One The Office

Chapter Two Pastor’s Helpers

Chapter Three Care For The Pastor

Chapter Four Associate Ministers

Chapter Five Pastor’s Accountability

Chapter Six The Anointing

Chapter Seven Promised Blessing For The Man Of God

Food For Thought

An Epic Of The Benefits Of Blessing

The Widow Woman’s Miracle

Me And My Pastor

A Letter To My Brother Pastors

To The Seasoned Pastor

TO MAMA

I MISS YOU SO MUCH

7/31/1941- 8/31/2013

AND

TO KAYLA

MY WONDERFUL GRANDAUGHTER

FOREWORD

There be not many men, few perhaps, that aspire to the office of pastor; a calling for which God anoints and appoints. It is a calling that is filled with thrills, very high highs, very low lows, and grace poured upon the inhabitant of this calling that none can compare. The dictionary defines the word Pastor as a member of the clergy in charge of a church or congregation. He is a minister or priest.

Pastor comes from the Latin word for shepherd, which also comes from another Latin word meaning to feed. Just as a shepherd looks after a flock of sheep and leads and feeds them, so does a pastor over a congregation of people. He leads them in the spiritual ways of God, and feeds them the Word of God. Thus, the pastor’s job, by definition, is to LEED and FEED the people that God has placed him over. Their spiritual growth is his responsibility. He must thrive to lead them to higher highs of spiritual understanding; this is very difficult when he is trying to do everything else, and all the other duties that the contemporary church has placed upon him. They have made him a secular CEO rather than a spiritual guild for the spiritually lost and the spiritually blind.

Moses perhaps being one of the greatest pastors of all times-pastoring over a million members, illustrated to us the imminent joys and sorrows of the pastor-ship. He is spiritual enough to commune with God about the people and on behalf of the people, and at the very same time he is human enough to meet the people where they are and tell them what God has said.

Pastoring is perhaps the most misunderstood gifts given by God. He is so often times unappreciated, abused, and taken for granted; nonetheless, too, it is simply a paradox; for it is the most rewarding calling of which a mortal man can enter. God communes with the pastor, and His spirit rests upon the pastor. It is no wonder why so many men desire the office of pastor-he is God’s representative amongst men. One cannot walk in the fullness of pastor without the spirit of God resting upon him. Look what the Apostle Paul says in the book of Ephesians 4: 11-13:

11. And he gave some, apostles: and some, prophets: and some, evangelists: and some, pastors and teachers;

12. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Note, pastoring is the only gift given by God that teaching is a part of the calling; thus, he is equipped to teach the flock the ways of God, and how to walk in holiness.

Pastoring is one of the most awesome jobs outlined in the bible -The Office of Pastor. It is the most difficult job a man will ever have. It will give the owner no end of stress; thus, is the reason why research shows that there is a distinct increase of alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, divorce, and suicide amongst the ranks of those who are called pastor. I’ve heard some people to say that, after a pastor has been found caught up in contrary things, he wasn’t a called pastor anyway, but that is far from the truth. Sometimes, we forget that even-though he is called by God to pastor, he is still human and plagued by human desires, and because he is human, he is more than capable of failures and mistakes, and of course, sin; so, we should not put him up on a high pinnacle and expect him to be super human.

With all of his spiritual gifts and qualities, he is still but human, plagued just as the rest of us, perhaps more.

Observe what the prophet Jeremiah said when he was at his lowest. Jeremiah 20: 7-10:

7. O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived: You are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me.

8. For since I spoke, I cried out, the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.

9. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

10. For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

In other words, to put it plainly, the Prophet Jeremiah got tired of the people talking about him-saying mean things about him, and waiting for him to fall; even though he was preaching to them what God had told him; so, the Prophet Jeremiah said that he was going home and was not going to preach anymore, but when he got home he couldn’t withstand, for the Word of God was like a fire shut up in his bosom.

Jeremiah had a weak moment; that is not to say when he got weak that God never called him, or that he was never a real prophet. It just means that men of God are still plagued by this flesh; thus, they stumble and fall sometimes; so the congregation and other members of the clergy should not be in the crucifying business.

Sometimes, I think that we of the clergy often times forget that we are supposed to be co-laborers for Christ with our fellow pastors in the church.

When one of us falls, it affects all of us. None of us can fall without it having some affect on all of us.

Even still, if God calls you to it, even in the midst of all of the stress, it will be the job that you will love more than anything else.

The reason why the office of pastor is so difficult and at the very same time, so paramount is because this man or woman has been burdened by the difficult task of teaching earthly men how to be spiritual-to show the man of flesh that he is more spirit than he is flesh; thus laboring to connect the natural man with his spiritual side. How difficult; what cataclysm to instruct an earthly man to acknowledge, reverence, and honor something that he cannot physically see or touch-when he has been taught all of his natural life