What Does The Rest Of The Church Do?

I enjoy reading help wanted ads for pastors because so many of them are unrealistic. 

What this Pastor Will Do

Much space is devoted initially to describing the pastor being a mature man of God, spiritually qualified according to Scripture to lead the church.  Then comes forth the list of everything this pastor is required to do.  He is to preach and teach, of course.  But, he must be notably skilled, excellent, relevant and compelling . . . and presumably every Sunday.  

He is to visit those in need, provide counseling, encourage, reprove, rebuke and exhort as needed.  He must lead the board and the staff.  He has to have a proven history of successful leadership at other churches, being a strong leader and a constant builder of new leaders.  He also needs to develop local and global outreach ministries.  

Then comes the list of yet other things they would really like him to do in addition.  He himself must do local evangelism and cross-cultural work.  Not only that, he himself must see people come to Christ.  Like so many job descriptions, the pastor is supposed to do almost everything and be almost perfect.  

Oh yes, while he is doing all of this, he is also to be continuing his formal education, and maintaining an exemplary life of prayer and meditation.  Nothing is mentioned about his family, but assuming he has one, assuredly it would have to be just as great as all the above.

What this Church Will Do

As a pastor reading all of this, my first thought was, “so, what does the rest of the church do?”  Is there anything left of significance.  Perhaps they watch the pastor do it all, encourage and pray for him, even set up committees to keep track of his progress and make sure he does it all.

In this particular position description the congregation is “to grow in grace and knowledge.”  That’s it!  And they seem to be really energized by its possibilities.  Somehow they envision a large expansive ministry resulting from the pastor doing everything and they themselves doing very little.

They say they want to be a real church and not just a place to attend church, but it doesn’t ring true.  This appears to be confirmed by a brief visit to their website.  A moderately sized church but with very little ministry in proportion.

If everyone worked together on all those great things listed above for the pastor to do the church might grow and accomplish even greater things. 

Equipping Everyone to Work Together

I know that I am not being fair to this particular church.  And I know that it is job description for the pastor and not the church.  However, it illustrates what is often a reality--unreasonably high expectations of pastors and unreasonably low expectations of church members--which often leads to a lot disappointment and failure.

Might it be possible to write a position description for a pastor that expresses vision, and one that values leadership and teamwork in the mission?  Notice in this passage how everyone is equipped and then works together to make it happen.

Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

How is your church?  How do the church members view and value leadership?  How do the leaders themselves understand their role?  Does everyone see the whole church as a team working together on the mission?  

Godspeed on the pastoral search!