• The Role of the “Pastor”

    May 1, 2008

    A couple days ago I was writing how being bi-occupational allowed me to naturally pastor in a way that calls the community to live their gifting and calling for the sake for the kingdom…

    In case I wasn’t clear, let me quote from one of my heros, Lesslie Newbigin. He’s talking about the role of the pastor and says this,

    “The task of ministry is to lead the congregation as a whole in a mission to the community as a whole, to claim its whole public life, as well as the personal lives of all its people, for God’s rule. It means equipping all the members of the congregation to understand and fulfill their several roles in this mission through their faithfulness in their daily work. It means training and equipping them to be active followers of Jesus in his assault on the principalities and powers which he disarmed on the cross. And it means sustaining them in bearing the cost of that warfare.”

    “To claim its whole public life as well as the personal lives of its people, for God’s rule.” Wow. That’s solid stuff. How do we do that? That’s obviously more complicated and there is no one way to do it. I think the answer depends on your culture, your setting and your community. In the burbs where we live, its a whole other kind of challenge.

    But, there is one thing that is fair universal, in order to lead your congregation into God’s rule the leader must be doing this himself or herself. Of course, that’s easier said than done too.

    But, speaking from experience, its a major detail that is overlooked far too often. Before we start worrying about being better leaders, I think we need to just be better followers of Jesus…

    Again, in case I am not clear enough, let’s let Lesslie Newbigin state it better,

    “[The minister] is not like a general who sits at headquarters and sends his troops into battle. He goes at their head and takes the brunt of the enemy attack. He enables and encourages them by leading them, not just by telling them. In this picture, the words of Jesus have quite a different force. They all find their meaning in the central keyword, ‘follow me’.”

    There. Much better.

    (These quotes are found in Newbigin’s book, “The Gospel in a Pluralist Society” in the amazing chapter called “Ministerial Leadership for a Missionary Congregation.” - pages 234-241).

  • Comments on this Post:

    Comment by: eugene


    1

    todd,
    i wrote an entry that kind of spoke to this topic:

    “Bivocational is also good because let’s be honest…most full-time ministry workers are so consumed by ministry and the culture of ministry, they rarely engage and interface with the larger world. It’s a double edge sword because while ministry workers are regularly calling the church to love their neighbors and engage the culture and the world, they’re rarely doing [or able] to do the very thing they are preaching. And consequently, many ministry leaders grow to be monolingual. They can only speak one language - the language of the church. And in the long run, there will be a disconnect and it’ll become a detriment to the missional purpose of the body of Christ. All ministry leaders need to be bilingual and multicultural as we engage, exegete, and communicate with the larger culture and context. Beware of the bubble of the Christian sub-culture [think Truman Show here]. I attempt to maintain some balance through my work with our non-profit/non-religious neighborhood Q Cafe, the humanitarian organization, and just being part of the neighborhood where we live. I love being a pastor but there’s also something about being functional and conversational - while being missional and spiritual.”

    05/1/08 10:22 PM

    Comment by: Todd


    2

    Eugene, yeah, I saw that post. It was well said. Of course, i never want to get into the idea that bi-vocational is the only way. Considering you are paid by your church, I obviously don’t think you are advocating that!

    I think there are some real advantages to it but I also see some real disadvantages to it as well. Same goes will full-time paid by the church pastors. There are disadvantages (a few which you outline) and there are some major advantages as well.

    I think, like many things, its very contextual and depends on the church community and its surrounding culture…

    05/2/08 2:59 AM

    Comment by: Leslie Newbigin on the role of the Pastor « Christian Selvaratnam


    3

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    05/5/08 7:31 AM

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