Yes, there is a difference, but it is a difference of job rather than rank, and it changes from one church to the next. A preacher is anyone who preaches. A pastor is someone with ongoing care of a particular congregation. Most pastors preach, and in everyday American English the two words are often used of the same person. Where a church draws a firm line between them, it is usually drawing it from the six New Testament words below.
Six words the New Testament uses for this work
Only one New Testament verse puts the English word pastors on the page.
And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
Ephesians 4:11
The Greek behind pastors there is poimenas, from poimen, a shepherd. Behind teachers is didaskalous. The same verse lists evangelists, euangelistas, as a separate item. So the one verse that names pastors puts a proclaiming role beside them, not inside them.
English Bibles use five titles for a small set of Greek words. Pastor, preacher, elder, overseer and teacher do not line up neatly with any one of them. Strong’s numbers are given so you can check each word yourself.
| Greek word | Usually translated | What the lexicons give | A verse where it sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| poimen (4166) | pastor, shepherd | a herdsman, especially a shepherd | Ephesians 4:11 |
| presbyteros (4245) | elder | elder, older, presbyter | Acts 20:17 |
| episkopos (1985) | overseer | an overseer, a man charged with the duty of seeing that things to be done by others are done rightly | Acts 20:28 |
| kerysso (2784) | preach | to herald, as a public crier | 2 Timothy 4:2 |
| euangelizo (2097) | preach the gospel | to bring good news, to announce glad tidings | Romans 10:15 |
| didaskalos (1320) | teacher | one who teaches concerning the things of God | Ephesians 4:11 |
Three of the six describe standing over a group of people: shepherd, elder and overseer. Two describe speaking: heralding, and announcing good news. Romans 10:15 uses both speaking words in a single sentence. The sixth is teaching.
Elder, overseer and shepherd describe the same men in one conversation
In Acts 20, Paul sends to Ephesus for one group of men, and then uses three different words for what they are.
From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.
Acts 20:17
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
Acts 20:28
The word translated elders in Acts 20:17 is presbyterous. The word translated overseers in Acts 20:28 is episkopous. Be shepherds is poimainein, the verb formed from poimen. One group of men, one meeting, three words. Peter does the same thing inside a single sentence.
As a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed, I appeal to the elders among you: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;
1 Peter 5:1-2
Fellow elder there is sympresbyteros. Elders is presbyterous. Be shepherds is poimanate. Watching over is episkopountes. That overlap is why many churches treat pastor, elder and overseer as one office with three names. They are not three ranks.
Not every elder preached
One verse marks preaching out as a particular kind of work done by some of the elders and not all of them.
Elders who lead effectively are worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
1 Timothy 5:17
The office is shared. The preaching is work inside it that some hold and some do not. Every difference in the rule books further down is a different answer to who does that work and what to call him.
How often each word appears
Counted across the New Testament in the Berean Standard Bible, the translation quoted on this page:
- Pastors appears in one verse, Ephesians 4:11. The singular pastor does not appear at all.
- Preacher appears in three verses. Paul uses it of himself in 1 Timothy 2:7 and 2 Timothy 1:11, and 2 Peter 2:5 uses it of Noah. None of the three is about a position in a local church. The plural preachers does not appear.
- Overseer or overseers appears in seven verses.
- Elder or elders appears in 64 verses. Most of those are about Jewish elders or about the twenty-four elders in Revelation. About twenty are about leaders of a Christian congregation.
- Shepherd or shepherds appears in 22 verses. Four are the shepherds at the nativity, most of the rest are about Jesus, and only three describe a church leader shepherding a congregation: John 21:16, Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:2.
- The verb preach, counting preaches, preached and preaching, appears in 81 verses.
Two things follow from those numbers. The title pastor is rare and the activity of preaching is everywhere. And elder, not pastor, is the ordinary New Testament word for the people who lead a congregation. The full Berean Standard Bible text is a free download, so the count can be repeated.
Where the two English words came from
Pastor is simply the Latin word for shepherd. When Jerome translated Ephesians 4:11 into Latin he rendered poimenas as pastores, and the Latin verse ends “alios autem pastores et doctores”, pastors and teachers. The word reached English in the late fourteenth century. It first meant a shepherd with care of a flock or herd, then a spiritual guide, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Preacher arrived earlier, around 1200, from Old French and from the Latin praedicatorem, a proclaimer. The verb underneath it is praedicare, to proclaim publicly, built from prae, before, and dicare, to say. One word begins in a field. The other begins in a public square.
Both are still doing that work in current dictionaries. Merriam-Webster gives pastor as “a spiritual overseer”, especially a clergyperson serving a local church or parish. It gives preacher as one who preaches, and its second sense reads “one whose function is to preach sermons: pastor, minister”. The dictionary lists pastor as a synonym inside the definition of preacher, which is why ordinary speech runs the two together.
How five church bodies actually use the words
Five bodies that publish rules for their churches answer this question five different ways.
- Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 says of a local church that “Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon.” Pastor, elder and overseer are one office, written with slashes. Preacher is not an office here at all.
- Presbyterian Church in America. Its Book of Church Order says of the elder that “As he has the oversight of the flock of Christ, he is termed bishop or pastor”, and that these titles “do not indicate different grades of office, but all describe one and the same office” (BCO 8-1). It then divides elders into ruling elders and teaching elders. It says ruling elders “possess the same authority and eligibility to office in the courts of the Church as teaching elders” (BCO 8-9). What marks the teaching elder off is the preaching: his work is “to feed the flock by reading, expounding and preaching the Word of God and to administer the Sacraments” (BCO 8-5).
- United Methodist Church. Pastor is an appointment, not a credential. The denomination’s glossary defines a pastor as “The ordained or licensed person who has been appointed by the bishop to be in charge of a local church or churches.” A United Methodist pastor may be an ordained elder, or a licensed local pastor who is not ordained. Paragraph 340 of the Book of Discipline says licensed pastors “share with the elders the responsibilities and duties of a pastor for this fourfold ministry, within the context of their appointment.”
- Assemblies of God. Its position paper on ordination was adopted in 2020. It names three classifications of ministry: “the certified minister, the licensed minister, and the ordained minister”, alongside a limited local church credential. Pastor is not one of them. It names the work a credentialed minister is doing.
- Churches of Christ. Congregations in this tradition often keep the two apart and reserve pastor for the elders. An article in Truth Magazine states it flatly: “A preacher (evangelist) and the elders (pastors) are distinctly different appointments and should not be confused as being one and the same.” A congregational teaching page describes the practical arrangement: “As a member, the elders watch over the preacher as well as the other members of the congregation.”
Those five disagree with each other in writing. A church that belongs to none of them is bound by none of these definitions and sets its own usage. If your church calls its preacher the pastor, that is your church’s usage and it is not a mistake. What the words mean in a particular building is a question you have to ask in that building.
Three questions that settle it in your own church
- Is the person on the body that governs the church? In the Baptist and Presbyterian rule books above, that body is the elders. Pastor is one of the names for a member of it. If the person who preaches is not on that body, the church is using preacher for a job and pastor for an office.
- Is the title a credential or an appointment? In the Assemblies of God the credentials are certified, licensed and ordained minister, and pastor describes the work. In the United Methodist Church pastor is an appointment made by a bishop. The credential underneath it may be ordination as an elder, or a license to preach.
- Does the person have a standing charge in this congregation? Preaching can be done by a visitor in one morning. Care of a congregation is a relationship that continues after the sermon ends. That is the one point all five rule books above have in common.