The Right Place for Leadership in Pastoring
Perhaps our churches have become so influenced by culture that the number one gift for pastoring is regarded as leadership. Yes, pastors besides coming alongside and walking with, also have the role of presiding over (as John Lynch points out in response to the previous post), but in conversations I am always being corrected for not pointing out "leadership" functions of the pastoral office -- but when talking about leadership, hardly anyone corrects to point out the shepherding or servantship functions of the pastoral office.
The reason I find this unique is not that there are leadership functions in pastoral ministry, but rather than we are more concerned with leading than we are with shepherding or serving. Years ago, Walt Wright and Jack Balswick in a article on leadership noted that the leadership gift in Romans 12 in the fifth or sixth one listed -- rather than the first. However, in our culture and in our churches, we have more or less made it the primary gift for exercising our call in the life of the church. There may be many reasons for why we have made it primary, but one reason its become primary (and remains primary) is that we still have not taken to heart fully what Jesus meant when he declared in Mark 10: 42-43 "not to lord it over others." We hear this word of Jesus and even want to follow it, but we just can't bring ourselves to the point of giving up "not lording it over others" just a bit, just a little, so that things will work out in our churches, in ministry the way we want them to.
So yes, there may be a presiding over, being in front, but not in the way we think. In leadership involving these kind of things it needs to grow out of a servantship framework and not a "lording it over" paradigm.
So rather, than always trying to make a place of leadership, lets begin to discover what we are really called to when Jesus takes "lording it over others" off the table as a viable way of thinking for us. Let's focus on rediscovering the depths of servantship, rediscovering what it is to shepherd, let's give attention to the processes of discernment and gaining wisdom -- let's focus on relationships and releasing people to mature in the way God names them, calls them, rather than making them mere resources for ministry tasks.
As pastors we are called to walk with people, to help them attend to God -- to have ears to hear what God is saying in the world, their world, to have eyes to see what God is doing -- to encourage them (to have the courage) to participate in God's mission here on earth. I know there is a need to hold leadership issues in tension, but I have come to the place in my understanding and my journey, that I would rather err on the side of viewing what I am called to from the perspective of serving and shepherding, rather than from the side of exercising leadership in the way it has been expressed (and is still being expressed) for over the past 20 - 25 years.
Interested in your thoughts!
The reason I find this unique is not that there are leadership functions in pastoral ministry, but rather than we are more concerned with leading than we are with shepherding or serving. Years ago, Walt Wright and Jack Balswick in a article on leadership noted that the leadership gift in Romans 12 in the fifth or sixth one listed -- rather than the first. However, in our culture and in our churches, we have more or less made it the primary gift for exercising our call in the life of the church. There may be many reasons for why we have made it primary, but one reason its become primary (and remains primary) is that we still have not taken to heart fully what Jesus meant when he declared in Mark 10: 42-43 "not to lord it over others." We hear this word of Jesus and even want to follow it, but we just can't bring ourselves to the point of giving up "not lording it over others" just a bit, just a little, so that things will work out in our churches, in ministry the way we want them to.
So yes, there may be a presiding over, being in front, but not in the way we think. In leadership involving these kind of things it needs to grow out of a servantship framework and not a "lording it over" paradigm.
So rather, than always trying to make a place of leadership, lets begin to discover what we are really called to when Jesus takes "lording it over others" off the table as a viable way of thinking for us. Let's focus on rediscovering the depths of servantship, rediscovering what it is to shepherd, let's give attention to the processes of discernment and gaining wisdom -- let's focus on relationships and releasing people to mature in the way God names them, calls them, rather than making them mere resources for ministry tasks.
As pastors we are called to walk with people, to help them attend to God -- to have ears to hear what God is saying in the world, their world, to have eyes to see what God is doing -- to encourage them (to have the courage) to participate in God's mission here on earth. I know there is a need to hold leadership issues in tension, but I have come to the place in my understanding and my journey, that I would rather err on the side of viewing what I am called to from the perspective of serving and shepherding, rather than from the side of exercising leadership in the way it has been expressed (and is still being expressed) for over the past 20 - 25 years.
Interested in your thoughts!
posted by Roland G. Kuhl at 7:51 AM
3 Comments:
Words that bless me, brother. Thanks.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on the relationship between leadership & motivation?
Can you expand more on the general flow of what you are trying to explain here. I understand it but as a person that doens't feel like I fit in the average description of what a pastor usually is and yet called to pastoral ministry, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I feel more like a struggler. What book is it and do you have any other titles?
I read your article in the Canadian Baptist Seminary leadership update bulletin. Finally I've read something about leadership that really resonates with Scripture and the life of Jesus. I was beginning to feel if I was the only one that felt this way. Jesus has called us to serve. I don't "feel" like a leader, but I know God has called me to shepherd.
Thank you.
Larry Nutbrown
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