It's not about the pastor

This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"

Alan Creech, via Next Wave:

The popular former definition of that word has been found severely lacking. Boss, Commander, CEO, Manager, Administrator, Sovereign - no, these won't do. They won't do because they aren't right. They are mistaken notions of what a pastor or elder or leader is designed to be in a faith community - and therefore, they go against the grain of Body life and cause it to be crippled. I have found it to be an "answer" that if we hold on to this philosophy of pastoral leadership, or continue in a system which holds this view inherently, we perpetuate the notion that only one or a very few people in a community are "ministers" and therefore, the idea in most that they are not. I mean to say that there IS leadership in the Body - there are still pastors and elders - but we cannot afford to be those things as we have been taught to be them. It's not about the pastor. It's about the whole Body of Jesus and the Life of God in the Holy Spirit living in and through us all.

Comments

[Totem to Temple]

Thanks for posting this.

[ed]

how should this impact worship? How would worship if approached from this angle? These are the types of questions I'm dealing with...

[Steve Yaeger]

When Jesus lived in Galilee the scripture says that, "The word became flesh and made His dwelling among us." With Christ now as the Head of an earthly body, it is His express purpose to Glorify the Father and fulfill the great commission through the ministry of His body the Church. Those who love Him willingly lay down their plans, goals, dreams and desires so that He may transform them into wholly devoted Priests. In this way the body becomes the extension of the Messiah as the word made flesh and dwelling among men in this generation. Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, and Evangelists are given to teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteousness (II Tim. 3:16) the members of the body so that they may become mature in their faith, which will result in gloifying God and reconciling men through their sanctified thoughts, words and deeds. The one man show was never the will of God and it has only served to destroy the great commision by restraining genuine body nourishment and consequently public body ministry. The reformation may have brought the Church back to faith but it also left the Church with the fatal belief that ministry is primarily for the ordained; and worse, that ordination is reserved only for the academically elite. Scholarship has led the Church down a rabbit trail to utter uselessness. I would characterize the Church today as a body of scholars, spectators and admirers who have served to bring reproach to the name of Christ among unbelievers. Salvation has been reduced to mentally assenting to a particular denomination's creed and Christ has been recharacterized as a magnificently generous cosmic entity who is deeply devoted to granting your every wish for prosperity and happiness--whether mental, physical or material. I blame the leadership of the Church. If I see a pack of unruly children running wildly through a store I do not blame the children. I blame the parents for not teaching them how to behave. I am aghast at the level of carnality among Church leaders. I am heartsick from listening to the endless sales pitches otherwise known as their "vision" for the Church. Scholarship does not equal or even produce spiritual maturity. Remember,"knowledge puffs up." It takes God at the very least twenty years to produce a modicum of spiritual maturity in a man and that is assuming the man has not been seduced by our contemporary notions of maturity and success. Today's leaders resemble King Saul more than King David and they succeed (I use the term loosely) because the body is so spiritually inept they don't have the discernment to see otherwise. "Man looks at the outward God looks at the heart." As long as we continue to believe that a Masters in Divinity coupled with ambiton, drive, type "A" personality traits and a clever new scheme to fill the sanctuary qualifies a man as a spiritual leader we will continue to reproduce after the same kind. Scholars, spectators and admirers who believe on Christ only so long as it is personally profitable. The blue print for a relevant, practical believer's meeting that will usher all into the manifest presence of God and serve to edify and equip each member to recognize and fulfill their individual calling is spelled out plainly in the scriptures, but it remains hidden from anyone who is more interested in their own agenda than Christ's vision for His Church. I remain in prayerful agony that the Church will find the courage and integrity to forsake human wisdom and turn back to the scriptures for the only reliable blueprint for success in God's eyes. I am in agony to see all dimensions of leadership find fulfillment in ministry and relief from the impossible yoke now put upon them. Not only for their sake but for the sake of saints who remain like sheep without a shepherd tossed about by every wind of doctrine, living aimlessly frustrated lives that are unfruitful and unproductive for the Master.