First Time Kilted at Church

[yoippari]

My church is an evangelical non denominational one and we just call the lead pastor Barry. He has never, or at least not to my knowlege, gone by pastor or any other title, though his title would be pastor. We have another pastor but he I think focuses more on small groups, only rarely giving a sermon.

[jkdesq]

Hey Prester,

I don't really see anything that could cause offense (unlike perhaps my own post). The only thing I would question is the idea that there is any consistency among the demonations about how to use these terms. The Orthodox Church might use terms in one way, Anglican another, Catholic yet another. Use by Evangelicals will vary from group to group and church to church.

My daugther was baptized in the Church of England (ie. in England) by a Vicar who was "in charge of the parish". The Rector (ie. the guy in charge of our parish--he is also a Dean but I have no idea what the means) at my church in Canada claims that Rector, within the Anglican Communion, is the same as Vicar, just that the title vicar has never crossed the Atlantic. "Vicar" is still are real term and is not confined to Jan Austin, yet.

I was raised by Fundies in an evangelical chuch that used "preacher" until I was about 12 and used "pastor" after that. The explaination I received the word "pastor" was that it means "shepard". All "clergy" at the numerous fundamentalist churches (baptist and non-demoninational) I have attended during my life time are called "pastors" or "assistant pastor" or "associate pastors". The grand-pooba is usually "senior pastor". As the idea of "parish" does not, generally, exist within the evangelical church, it can't be said that charge of a parish as anything to do with who is a "pastor".

Jamie,

Didn't mean any offense. I am a little surprized that Catholics and Orthodox will use "pastor" (a term I thought was exclusively fundy). I just wanted an explanation. I hope the way I requested it didn't come across as too rude or challenging.

Anyway, I have taken this topic pretty far off kilts.