In Bible college, I remember fondly debating the issue of Dispensationalism. Many believed it, some denied it, and the discussions were often long and heated. Looking back I laugh and shake my head, as the issue is only a useful way to understand God’s working in history and has absolutely no impact on how we live or minister in Jesus’ name. Or does it? Thinking through issue I now think that it should have an impact on at least some Christians, namely Pastors. Before we get to that, however, we should answer one important question: What is Dispensationalism?

In debate I used to ask a very telling question, “is there a difference between the nation of Israel and the church?” If you answer is “yes” then you, my friend, are a dispensationalist. By this line of reasoning, nearly everyone is, and that confused many of those whom I debated, but it’s true and you can see the truth of this by reading the definition of the term:

Dispensationalism is a system of historical progression, consisting of a series of stages in God's self-revelation and plan of salvation.

Now within this idea, some see many, many divisions of history, or dispensations, while others may define only two. Personally, I see four, and I’ll get into that in a moment. The opposite point of view, Covenant theology, understands the church is the natural progression and growth of the nation of Israel based on the original covenant God made with Abraham, and not a separate and intentional entity. To be clear, I know many amazingly talented thinkers and solid followers of Jesus who adhere to this alternate view and count them among my brothers and sisters in Christ. This is not an issue worth breaking fellowship over, and I believe that even a Covenant theologian would be very comfortable reading 98% of what is on this website.

While it is hardly the defining issue of the day, if my understanding of how God has gradually revealed himself and his plans over history is correct then Pastors (at least a large percentage of them) need to rethink the way they minister. A chart may help in seeing where I’m coming from.

These are four institutions through which God achieves his redemptive purposes with believers collectively. Why am I telling you all this? What difference does this make? Because it’s important, and it makes a big difference for those in the role of pastor.

How many pastors would compare themselves to Abraham? Or Solomon? Or Jesus? Yet this is their role in the current scheme of things. This is not entirely their fault, most congregations do not treat their pastors with such esteem. Nor do pastoral search comities usually evaluate their next pastor’s abilities in light of this truth. The church needs to reorient itself so that it operates in alignment with the appropriate leadership role. We’ll examine more of what this looks like tomorrow.