Yesterday I was having
coffee with two area pastors when a similar topic arose as part of our discussion
of elder-ship. Specially we were talking about the differences between having a
church leadership focused entirely on the senior pastor versus having a team
structure in which the senior is first among equals.
As part of this discussion I was asked if I was afraid for my
“job” as pastor since our church bylaws allows for the church elders to ‘fire’
the pastor. My response startled him as I said that I wouldn’t want a church that
didn’t want me.
Or to use different words, I am following Jesus and as long as the church fellowship is going the same direction, I’m happy to love them and push them toward Jesus. But if there every comes a time when they want to stop moving or if they want to go another direction than the one God has me going, then I will happily step down and let them go after God. The church is not my life; Jesus is my life and loving people is just what I do because it’s what He is doing.
All too often pastors get caught up in the ‘hireling’
concept that their church is their life. They pour themselves into the ‘church’
as an organization instead of pouring themselves into the ‘church’ as the body
of Christ. The difference may seem slight, but the outcome and direction of one
noting the difference is HUGE!!
In a missional sense,
the difference can be seen in how one views a church plant. Is the pastor going
to a certain area to start their own organization/church? Or does God already have
a ‘church’ there who is just looking for someone to help spur them on towards Jesus?
Regardless of the heart behind the actions, the first view will
normally create an attitude in which the church planter/senior pastor is
constantly trying to keep a hold of power and authority. Unless it this attitude is checked, it can becomes
more about the vision of the pastor and less about what God is doing among people
in the fellowship.
The latter view lends itself towards an attitude of a journey.
Church planters/senior pastors become more concerned about what Jesus is doing in
their community than they do with fulfilling their own visions or dreams. This
is hard as these leaders are normally dreamers and visionaries motivated by what
will one day be. Yet these dreams and
visions must be written in pencil as it is the “counsel of the LORD that shall
stand” and not the “plans in a man’s heart” (Prov
19:21).
What say you? Where are you pouring your life?
Great post Sean... some of the very things Jan and I have been discussing re: our proposed plant. Questions also come to mind as to whether the vision of the lead pastor is "God inspired" or otherwise "tired" i.e. some wannabe re-worked dream of copying someone else's calling. If inspired, shouldn't the lead pastor press on towards God's calling. If tired, shouldn't the elders/board be able to say: "Hey, I think we're missing it here."? In either case shouldn't we be working towards some unified sense of God's calling for the body we're leading and the area/peoples we're called to? :o)
ReplyDeleteAwesome Mike. I agree with you. The president of my seminary said copy cat ministry was really stripping the church of what God wanted to do in specific locals through specific church; theological industrialism.
ReplyDeleteGood robust dialogue is necessary to find out what God is doing; but that's an assumption we want to discover what God is doing vs. what we want to see God accomplish through us.
What if, during winter, we sat & enjoyed God & waited to see what flowers sprung up during spring time & then joined God in cultivating the flowers He so intentionally set within that field?
Another good post Josh.
"Good robust dialogue is necessary" - Exactly!!
ReplyDeleteThe leaders of the church must be talking to each other as well as to the members of the congregation to see what God is doing among them. So often the leadership of a church will go off and create a vision without really watching or seeing what God is doing in their church. Yet if Jesus really does speak to the entire body, then we have to be willing to listen to the entire body.
Now this does not mean that each church must a congregationalist body. It just means that the leadership (pastor and/or elders) must be mindful of what is happening among the people as God might be doing something different then the vision of the senior pastor.
Just like MDavis said, pastors and leaders are to "working towards some unified sense of God's calling for the body" that they are lead. It is not about them; it is about what God is doing among His people at that time.