See bottom for the whole series
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3. On one occasion, the New Testament uses the word "pastor" or "shepherd" in relation to a leadership role in the early church: Ephesians 4:11. It is unlikely that such a "pastor" was a minister like we have today. Rather, this is probably another way of referring to an elder or overseer in a church.
1 Peter 2:25 pushes us in this direction. "You were straying like sheep but you have returned now to the shepherd and overseer of your lives." Jesus is of course the good shepherd (John 10:14). He is the great shepherd (Heb. 13:20), the one that God brought up from the dead.
Although we might think today of a pastor being soothing or being a minister in the role of a counselor, the image is clearly one of keeping the sheep safe and in the right place. A shepherd brings errant sheep back to the fold. A shepherd guards the sheep from enemies and hostile forces. So a shepherd is not a passive or soothing role but the role of one who is ready to fight for the sheep and discipline them if necessary to keep them on track.
Accordingly, Ephesians 4:11 is probably thinking of the role of an elder or overseer when it uses the word pastor. We have argued that this was not likely a role for a single individual in a given church but a group of individuals. They collectively guided the church in the right direction.
Showing posts with label pastor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pastor. Show all posts
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Sunday, March 18, 2012
When a pastor should change churches...
I was thinking today about some signs, if I were pastoring, that might hint I should think about changing churches.
1. You sense that God is calling you elsewhere.
There should be at least one completely positive entry on this list. The ideal scenario is when you have had a fruitful ministry somewhere and you sense it is time for you to move on. Maybe there is a young leader you have been grooming to step into leadership. Maybe you are ready to retire. Maybe you sense God calling you to another ministry. Wouldn't it be great if all pastoral transitions were of this sort!
Now for the other side:
2. If most of my people have lost confidence in my leadership, and there is no clear way to get it back.
Certainly a congregation can be mistaken. Certainly there's a time to stick with it through a hard time. But there's also a time to recognize that my leadership capital is spent. It may not be my problem, or it may definitely be my problem. But to be a leader means for people to follow you, and if they're not following you, you're done.
3. When your people, including your best staff and lay leaders, are jumping ship in large numbers and those that haven’t jumped yet are looking.
Sometimes a church can benefit from certain people leaving, perennial trouble makers. Sometimes a sign of a church's health is when it sends out people to plant churches and further God's mission. But some pastors also deceive themselves about how much blame they should take over the departure. When some of your best leaders are going elsewhere, it can mean you have been stifling their gifts or taking the church in the wrong direction.
Good leaders get out of the way when those under them can do something better than them, and they facilitate the exercise of the gifts of those under them. Bad leaders can't let anyone under them be better than them. Inevitably, these subordinate leaders feel like their talents are being buried in the sand, and they go elsewhere. Meanwhile, the level of leadership in your church sinks to your level. A less gifted person can actually be a great leader if he or she enables and gets out of the way of those under her who have greater gifts in particular areas.
3. When you have lost a clear vision for your church and can't seem to get it back.
There will almost always be transition times when you and a church are trying to figure out where to go next. But if you go too long without a clear sense of direction, the church may be in trouble if you stay. Best step out of the way and let God call someone else with a vision for the church.
Of course, there are other situations. You can have a vision out of sync with the church's vision. Sometimes you will be right, and sometimes you will be wrong. There is a time to work around dead tissue. But there also is a time when you are the dead tissue. Wisdom is knowing the difference.
4. When the church is declining or has plateaued under your leadership, and needs a fresh perspective.
A church will have ups and downs, but you don't want it to stay in stagnant or down mode for too long. Sometimes fresh eyes and fresh enthusiasm are needed. There's no dishonor in recognizing that your time there is up.
What you don't want to happen is for the church to go into a spiral dive on a collision course with a major crisis. You want to leave before it's too late and your name becomes permanently associated with killing a church that may once have had great health and vitality. You want to leave before it will take a messiah to rescue it.
Have I missed anything?
1. You sense that God is calling you elsewhere.
There should be at least one completely positive entry on this list. The ideal scenario is when you have had a fruitful ministry somewhere and you sense it is time for you to move on. Maybe there is a young leader you have been grooming to step into leadership. Maybe you are ready to retire. Maybe you sense God calling you to another ministry. Wouldn't it be great if all pastoral transitions were of this sort!
Now for the other side:
2. If most of my people have lost confidence in my leadership, and there is no clear way to get it back.
Certainly a congregation can be mistaken. Certainly there's a time to stick with it through a hard time. But there's also a time to recognize that my leadership capital is spent. It may not be my problem, or it may definitely be my problem. But to be a leader means for people to follow you, and if they're not following you, you're done.
3. When your people, including your best staff and lay leaders, are jumping ship in large numbers and those that haven’t jumped yet are looking.
Sometimes a church can benefit from certain people leaving, perennial trouble makers. Sometimes a sign of a church's health is when it sends out people to plant churches and further God's mission. But some pastors also deceive themselves about how much blame they should take over the departure. When some of your best leaders are going elsewhere, it can mean you have been stifling their gifts or taking the church in the wrong direction.
Good leaders get out of the way when those under them can do something better than them, and they facilitate the exercise of the gifts of those under them. Bad leaders can't let anyone under them be better than them. Inevitably, these subordinate leaders feel like their talents are being buried in the sand, and they go elsewhere. Meanwhile, the level of leadership in your church sinks to your level. A less gifted person can actually be a great leader if he or she enables and gets out of the way of those under her who have greater gifts in particular areas.
3. When you have lost a clear vision for your church and can't seem to get it back.
There will almost always be transition times when you and a church are trying to figure out where to go next. But if you go too long without a clear sense of direction, the church may be in trouble if you stay. Best step out of the way and let God call someone else with a vision for the church.
Of course, there are other situations. You can have a vision out of sync with the church's vision. Sometimes you will be right, and sometimes you will be wrong. There is a time to work around dead tissue. But there also is a time when you are the dead tissue. Wisdom is knowing the difference.
4. When the church is declining or has plateaued under your leadership, and needs a fresh perspective.
A church will have ups and downs, but you don't want it to stay in stagnant or down mode for too long. Sometimes fresh eyes and fresh enthusiasm are needed. There's no dishonor in recognizing that your time there is up.
What you don't want to happen is for the church to go into a spiral dive on a collision course with a major crisis. You want to leave before it's too late and your name becomes permanently associated with killing a church that may once have had great health and vitality. You want to leave before it will take a messiah to rescue it.
Have I missed anything?
Saturday, July 30, 2011
The Pastor in the Church in the World
I had a thought for a series. I've had a lot to do with curriculum creation at Wesley Seminary at IWU. I probably know more about what we're teaching in all the courses than anyone. I also have dreams for what would be taught in each class. Of course I did not write all this curriculum and with each new faculty person, the less and less input I have.
But I was thinking it would be fun to create a kind of "last will and testament" for the curriculum of Wesley. If I could control what was taught in each class, what would my "whatever you teach, be sure and teach this" list be?
The first class in the MDIV curriculum is called Pastor, Church, and World. (P.S. despite the similarity in name, it is nothing like Asbury's Kingdom, Church, and World). This is a course that (beyond orienting our students to the seminary and its curriculum) is about the person of a pastor as s/he serves the church as part of God's mission to the world.
I have perhaps had less to do with the design of this course than any. It is a one week intensive course (two start next week on campus, one in English and one in Spanish). The kind of professor we want is someone with significant pastoral experience who has been there, who knows the pressures on the pastor as a person and has demonstrated skill at handling them.
My list will be short.
1. I would want the students in this course to be able to distinguish clearly between pastoring as a job and one's commitment to God. God comes first, yes, but the church is not God. Your family will normally come before your job as pastor of the church.
I say normally because there are times when God calls a person to special sacrifice and mission that involve his or her family as well. I say normally because there will be times when pastoring takes precedence over a son or daughter's ball game.
However, this should more be the exception rather than the rule. A lot of pastors are type A personalities (then again, some are lazy bums too). It would be easy for such a person to use "the mission" as an excuse to be a miserable husband and father/wife and mother. I'm not buying it. Most of the time, you're in the wrong. God first, family second, job third--and most of the time the church is the job.
2. Accordingly, ministers need to set boundaries and if s/he can't, the church should do it for him or her. If s/he is in a parsonage, the church needs to respect that this house is a home the vast majority of the time. The minister needs to take a day off each week and be pretty rigid about it, not in a selfish or in your face way, but as an important personal discipline.
3. Finally there is the matter of vocation. A minister should have a sense of his/her place within God's mission. Each individual is both infinitely significant and insignificant. Ministers are infinitely significant because you are ambassadors of God and his Christ. Ministers are infinitely insignificant because "what are mortals that you are mindful of them?" No amount of superficial success should mislead you into significance. No amount of superficial failure should mislead you into insignificance.
But I was thinking it would be fun to create a kind of "last will and testament" for the curriculum of Wesley. If I could control what was taught in each class, what would my "whatever you teach, be sure and teach this" list be?
The first class in the MDIV curriculum is called Pastor, Church, and World. (P.S. despite the similarity in name, it is nothing like Asbury's Kingdom, Church, and World). This is a course that (beyond orienting our students to the seminary and its curriculum) is about the person of a pastor as s/he serves the church as part of God's mission to the world.
I have perhaps had less to do with the design of this course than any. It is a one week intensive course (two start next week on campus, one in English and one in Spanish). The kind of professor we want is someone with significant pastoral experience who has been there, who knows the pressures on the pastor as a person and has demonstrated skill at handling them.
My list will be short.
1. I would want the students in this course to be able to distinguish clearly between pastoring as a job and one's commitment to God. God comes first, yes, but the church is not God. Your family will normally come before your job as pastor of the church.
I say normally because there are times when God calls a person to special sacrifice and mission that involve his or her family as well. I say normally because there will be times when pastoring takes precedence over a son or daughter's ball game.
However, this should more be the exception rather than the rule. A lot of pastors are type A personalities (then again, some are lazy bums too). It would be easy for such a person to use "the mission" as an excuse to be a miserable husband and father/wife and mother. I'm not buying it. Most of the time, you're in the wrong. God first, family second, job third--and most of the time the church is the job.
2. Accordingly, ministers need to set boundaries and if s/he can't, the church should do it for him or her. If s/he is in a parsonage, the church needs to respect that this house is a home the vast majority of the time. The minister needs to take a day off each week and be pretty rigid about it, not in a selfish or in your face way, but as an important personal discipline.
3. Finally there is the matter of vocation. A minister should have a sense of his/her place within God's mission. Each individual is both infinitely significant and insignificant. Ministers are infinitely significant because you are ambassadors of God and his Christ. Ministers are infinitely insignificant because "what are mortals that you are mindful of them?" No amount of superficial success should mislead you into significance. No amount of superficial failure should mislead you into insignificance.
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