I call myself an Internet Pastor. The term “pastor” is a synonym for shepherd, but carries a lot cultural and social baggage that really isn’t appropriate. Were I more precise with biblical terminology, I would use the label Internet Elder.
Western Christianity is terribly confused on quite a few fundamental issues, not least of which is the two primary offices in the New Testament. Going all the way back to the prophets, there are elders and priests. The Lord refers to Two Witnesses whose mission is to feed the fire of revelation, a light to the world. They approach it differently from their roles, each feeding the flame by how they cling to the moral justice of God. In most English translations it’s more like king and priest, but the Medieval image of either role has no place in this picture. King is more like a tribal chief or elder, a father figure.
My calling is eldership, not priesthood. In the strictest sense, the New Testament pastor performs the priestly role, while the elder is an organizational ruler. We can’t make sharp divisions in the Western sense of things between the two roles, but the priestly pastor is more focused on the ethereal meaning of things. The elder is more concerned with how to keep things organized for that ethereal purpose. Both men would have a powerful overlap in thinking and how they understand things, but tend to divide the task of guiding the family of faith. Both would teach and preach; both operate as equals in the larger mission of shepherding. The difference is in focus and methods.
