The Tyranny of Titles: What to Call Your Pastor

Cultures vary greatly in the food, music, and fashion they enjoy. But the love of titles seems universal. South Africa is a beautiful Rainbow Nation of cultural diversity; yet our religious landscape is littered with ministerial titles, with pastors and bishops dying by degrees and drowning in flattery. You can’t leave your home without seeing a poster advertising the next conference, featuring “Reverend Doctor Umfundisi Apostle Prophet Major 1 Moruti So-and-So”!

Raise any concern about this idolatry and you will be told, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed!” and, “Leave our high and mighty man of God alone!” These arrogant, unapproachable false teachers are surrounded by bouncers, luxury cars, jets and mansions, wearing fancy clothes, seated at separate tables or thrones, waiting to be served, not to serve.

Obsession with titles is nothing new. Satan fell from heaven because of pride (Jude 6), God judged humanity at the tower of Babel for striving to “make a name” for themselves (Genesis 11:1–9), and Herod was eaten by worms for accepting adulation as a god (Acts 12:20–23). In our Lord’s final sermon in Matthew 23, he lamented the Pharisees’ intoxication with titles and fame, pronouncing woes upon them. The appropriate titles these charlatans deserved were what Jesus called them: wolves (Matthew 7:15), vipers (Matthew 3:7), blind guides (Matthew 15:14), whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27), and hypocrites (Matthew 23:13, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29)!

One of the reasons that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees is that “they love … greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others” (Matthew 23:6–7). He then urges his hearers: “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ” (vv. 8-10). What did Jesus mean here, and how does it apply to the use of titles in ministry today?

As Jesus prepared the Twelve to lead his church, he warned against playing the Jewish game of ranking teachers above others, reminding them that they were brothers and there is only one Lord Jesus. “You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers” (v. 8).

Of course, this does not mean that there is no place for teachers in Christ’s church. The very writing of the New Testament makes this plain, as does the gift of teaching for the church (Ephesians 4:11). But Jesus did mean that a pastor’s basic attitude toward the flock must be that of spiritual equality and mutuality. In the church, we are brothers and sisters—fellow siblings of our heavenly Father.

When Jesus said, “Call no man your father” (v. 9), he was not denigrating earthly fathers. The context makes clear that he had spiritual leaders in view, as vv. 8 and 10 show. His point was that there is no place in his church for patriarchal titles, clerical rankings, and ecclesiological ladders. How much harm has been done by abuse of spiritual authority in the name of “Archbishop, Cardinal, Father So-and-So”?

Yet Paul’s example shows the vital role (not the title) of spiritual fathering for younger believers (see 1 Corinthians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:11–12; Philemon 10; etc.). Jesus was not opposed to a spiritual father-child relationship; his warning was against the arrogant motive of wanting “to be seen by others” (v. 5), of refusal to serve and lording it over others (vv. 11-12). The Head of the church forbids needless distinctions that take the focus off of our heavenly Father and our equality as his children (see John 1:12-13).

Jesus cautioned next against seeking high position or distinguished status, with titles that detract from our spiritual unity as followers of the one supreme Leader (v. 10). Together we are all but mere slaves and glad servants of our illustrious Master.

Scripture does tell leaders to “lead” (Romans 12:8). Additionally, Christ made clear the two offices he appointed in the local church: elders and deacons. But when a humble leader does his job faithfully, that is a far cry from self-exalting clergy who crave official titles. Third John warns about the “Diotrephes disease” of those who “love to put [themselves] first” (v. 9). The higher a preacher’s view of biblical authority, the lower his view of his own authority.

If anybody could claim titles, it was the eyewitnesses Jesus commissioned to establish his church: the apostles! Yet they consistently introduce themselves in their writings by their name, and speak of their identity as “slaves” or “prisoners” of Christ. When they claim apostleship, they use the word of their calling, not as an elevated title. The apostle John omits his name entirely from the letters ascribed to him. Paul said he would only boast in his weaknesses and suffering for the gospel, in stark contrast to the false “super-apostles” with all their glamour (2 Corinthians 10-12).

What then about the legitimate use of titles, terms of endearment, and appropriate respect for our superiors? Matthew 23 is not a prooftext for being dishonourable or rude. Love “is not arrogant or rude” (1 Corinthians 13:4–5). We ought to show “respect to whom respect is owed, honour to whom honour is owed” (Romans 13:7). This begins with honouring father and mother (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2).

Nor was Jesus forbidding necessary organisational titles (e.g., in medicine or the military). But in the church context, I would prefer most people just called me “Tim,” except for children and youth learning to respect adults, who appropriately call me “Uncle Tim” or “Mr Cantrell” for their own good. At the same time, I cannot go around rebuking everyone who calls me “Pastor Tim” if it’s simply a nickname of affection and a reminder of my duty.

As spiritual leaders, our greatest commendation is not shiny titles but transformed people. They are our living epistles; there is no greater crown or compliment (see 2 Corinthians 3:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20)! Changed lives are the best endorsement for any speaker and the highest accreditation for any institution.

Woe to both preachers demanding respect and their hearers guilty of flattery. Yet our idolatry runs so deep in our fallen hearts that avoiding titles alone does not cure it. There is no indication that titles were a problem at Corinth, but man-centredness was dividing the church: “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas” (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:4). The only lasting cure was to forsake boasting in men and to boast in the Lord alone (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5).

At the transfiguration, God told Peter to stop looking at Moses and Elijah and gaze at Christ: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). May solus Christus and soli Deo gloria not just be banners in our sanctuary but the ambition of our hearts: To God alone be the glory.