Purpose and Focus of the Center for Pastoral Ministry
Over the years with my serving both as a pastor in four congregations and serving pastors in their continuing education I have seen ways in which pastoring has taken a backseat to more business-oriented ways of leading in the church. As a result what has developed under the leadership of these CEO-type pastors are churches which are more "businesses in church clothes," rather than communities of faith which provide space for gospel in a broken world.
I am becoming increasingly aware, as I talk with pastors who are struggling with the kind of pastors they have become, the kind of pastors they have been pressured into, by the business-oriented approach to ministry, that there is a tremendous need to rediscover and rediscern what it means to be a pastoral shepherd, a pastoral servant.
In looking to Jesus as the paradigm for our pastoring, there is a strong focus not on "lording it over others," but in coming alongside others, being with others, being among others as a shepherd, as a servant in order to guide people in being open to see what God is doing all around them, in being open to hear what God is saying to them and to a broken world.
I believe deeply that in our rediscovering and rediscerning what it means to be shepherds, what it means to be servants, we shall come to understand more clearly and deeply what we are being called to in serving the church of Christ -- much more than embracing the concepts of leadership has.
So why this Center? Well I am discovering I am not the only pastor thinking this way. As I have interacted with pastors in different denominational and geographical settings I have witnessed a cry that there has to be more to what it means to be a shepherd of God's flock than than which is being expressed in the leadership literature ad nauseaum. We have been so inundated with leadership literature that we have forgotten the art of walking with a community of people guiding them to be connected with God. So this Center, which is starting out as a blog, is meant to be (1) a forum for connecting pastors in conversation with one another, (2) providing dialogue and learning opportunities for exploring together how we can be more effective shepherds and servants, (3) provide a resource listing for guiding our thinking and acting in new ways as pastoral shepherds and servants, and (4) to provide encouragement for one another as we seek to fulfill the calling God has placed upon our lives as pastors.
I hope you will join me on this journey -- a spiritual one, a theological one -- in which we can engage in mutual dialogue discovering together what we as pastors have been called to in serving Jesus Christ and his church.
I am becoming increasingly aware, as I talk with pastors who are struggling with the kind of pastors they have become, the kind of pastors they have been pressured into, by the business-oriented approach to ministry, that there is a tremendous need to rediscover and rediscern what it means to be a pastoral shepherd, a pastoral servant.
In looking to Jesus as the paradigm for our pastoring, there is a strong focus not on "lording it over others," but in coming alongside others, being with others, being among others as a shepherd, as a servant in order to guide people in being open to see what God is doing all around them, in being open to hear what God is saying to them and to a broken world.
I believe deeply that in our rediscovering and rediscerning what it means to be shepherds, what it means to be servants, we shall come to understand more clearly and deeply what we are being called to in serving the church of Christ -- much more than embracing the concepts of leadership has.
So why this Center? Well I am discovering I am not the only pastor thinking this way. As I have interacted with pastors in different denominational and geographical settings I have witnessed a cry that there has to be more to what it means to be a shepherd of God's flock than than which is being expressed in the leadership literature ad nauseaum. We have been so inundated with leadership literature that we have forgotten the art of walking with a community of people guiding them to be connected with God. So this Center, which is starting out as a blog, is meant to be (1) a forum for connecting pastors in conversation with one another, (2) providing dialogue and learning opportunities for exploring together how we can be more effective shepherds and servants, (3) provide a resource listing for guiding our thinking and acting in new ways as pastoral shepherds and servants, and (4) to provide encouragement for one another as we seek to fulfill the calling God has placed upon our lives as pastors.
I hope you will join me on this journey -- a spiritual one, a theological one -- in which we can engage in mutual dialogue discovering together what we as pastors have been called to in serving Jesus Christ and his church.
posted by Roland G. Kuhl at 10:43 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home