The Shepherd and the Sheep; Who's Failing Who?

Have you ever moved? As an adult, has your career or other circumstance ever required you to pack up and start over somewhere else? My husband and I bought another house (in the same city as our old house) last year. Being a military brat, it was my first household move without a (paid-for) truck full of guys who come and stuff your junk into boxes, load it on a truck and reverse the process at the other end. I look back and chuckle, but it was mildly traumatic for me when my well-meaning father-in-law unexpectedly backed his truck up to my house and announced that he and his employees were there to help.

Well, here we ago again.

My husband and I are in the middle of an interesting transition (which you can read about here) to another church. I have to mention that this isn't just any church, it's the church I grew up in (or the closest thing to it for a moving military kid). One of the many (many, many) things on my mind through this whole process is the "career" of pastor. I've written about the responsibilities of the pastor before, but the way the job plays out in the life of todays clergymen (and women) and in our culture gives rise to concerns in my insides.

Several years ago, when my husband was offered the job as youth pastor at our current church, one of his mentors told him (who knows where he got this stat) that the average youth pastor stays at a church for only three years. That's not even long enough to see the freshmen graduate much less mentor junior high students successfully into adulthood. Nic and I have always been appalled by the frequent church-hopping that happens in our city, but pastors only staying for three years?

Nic and I have always considered ourselves "lifers" - we assume that we will be at the church God has brought us to for life unless God very clearly tells us otherwise. Attendance in any given body of believers should be considered carefully and faithfully. If conflict arises, resolve it. If sin arises, deal with it in grace and repentance. If you're "not happy with" some of the goings on, you remind yourself that church isn't about you and do what you think you need to to ensure that Jesus' body is honoring Him. I don't say this from a position of a perfect track-record, but I do say it from experience.

While the average Western Christian's view on commitment to a particular church is saddening, the cultural effect on the Western Pastor is even more disheartening. With the development of denominational networks and church job websites, a seminary graduate can climb the ladder in no time. Wait. What?

Therein lies our problem. Let's play a little fill in the blanks game here... Most young people graduate from Bible School and make their ___ (5, 10, 20) year career plan. [problem #1: needing a plan. As Francis Chan puts it, God didn't give Abraham a 5 year, much less a 20 year plan when he told him to pack up and move to a new land and that he'd become the father of nations.] Said student might think to themselves, I'll put applications in to be a/an ________ (children's, worship, youth, associate, small groups, interim, other?) pastor at a _________ (smaller, rural, less known, average, springboard) type church. [problems #2 & #3: The position and body one serves in cannot be seen as mere stepping stones on the path to career success] After I get some experience under my belt, I'll start looking at ______ (bigger, cooler, more trendy, more relevant, more Biblical, well-known, higher-paying) churches or a/an ______ (preaching pastor, head pastor, evangelist, traveling speaker) job that I really want. [problem #4: a pastor seriously wrongs their sheep when he even subconsciously considers them a bullet point on his resumé.]

First of all, pastoring is a calling. And no body of believers is a mere springboard for one person's career success. If a pastor doesn't think he is called to minister to young people, why would he think he has the right to take a job doing just that "in the meantime"? Doing a job God didn't design you for seems like a really quick way to get burnt out fast to me! Similarly, I find it interesting that exponentially more pastors are apparently "called" to wealthier and urban churches. If we measure by the number of clergy and their calling, it would appear that God cares very little about the communities and churches in less-hip or poorer areas. Thankfully, the Bible shows us that God's heart is for the marginalized. In fact, most of Jesus' ministry on this earth was focused on the blue-collar, poor and marginalized. It looks to me as if we need to reevaluate the term calling.

Secondly, I think we have shorted both pastors and congregations in the way we have defined their roles. Burn out often happens when a pastor doesn't pastor his family. This is his first ministry. Every pastor's wife and child knows their are time when we have to wait. But ensuring that he has time to spiritually attend to his family is the duty of the pastor. So where does the congregation fit it? Expectations. A church should expect their pastor to take time for his family in order for him to qualify to be their minister (see 1 Tim 2). Their expectations of him should be his best in home and ministry and the give-and-take (aka hard work and grace) that this entails. Also, the congregation should be expected to do their part. A great many pastors and youth pastors tucker out because they run like mad trying to fulfill all of the duties of the church. Instead, each believer should serve and grow in the unique gifts that God has given them. When we all pitch in, a pastor can help us grow (his job as shepherd) and ensure that we (the church as a whole) function to glorify God and further His Kingdom. (Eph 4 & 5, Rom 12, 1 Cor 12)

So now I ask you...how do you view commitment to a church? Why do you think Pastors move to new jobs (in or out of ministry) so quickly?

What are pastors for? I'm a little worked up and a lot tired.

Generally speaking, what is the purpose of a pastor? Is it just to deliver sermons? We get the English word pastor from the same root as the word pastoral, relating to the care of sheep and goats. In fact, the first definition of shepherd in my dictionary is not someone who cares for sheep, it's "a clergyman who watches over a group of people." I think it's beautiful and accurate, as the Word uses the same analogy!

So I guess my questions are really more like this: how many Pastors look after a group of people? I mean really look after, including going after lost ones and protecting the babies. Also, how much time do pastors spend truly caring for people? And how much time do they spend simply preparing messages? If you think about it, how much does a sermon or two a week really do in the grand scheme of "looking after" sheep? Does that hour ensure that they are truly fed, a healthy part of the flock and producing baby sheep? And how much are we paying these guys (or gals in some situations)? I truly believe that many pastors are highly educated and very gifted, but are they doing their jobs? I mean really, does the pastoral job description consist of merely preaching and one or two other menial tasks to assure the attendance stays up? Biblical stewardship would require us (with grace) to make sure they're earning their income.

While working through this issue in my own brain, I looked at many New Testament verses. I started by looking at the ministries of Paul and others mentioned in the New Testament; how they exhorted, discipled, taught and seemed to just be among the people while offering practical advice. Then I felt like God was leading me to places I hadn't thought to look.

First of all, what about the ministry of Jesus? Hello! Why didn't I go there to begin with?! Jesus did preach to the masses, but He spent much of His time developing several strong believers, concentrating on a few. When He did preach to large groups, He didn't exactly coddle the audience to protect His attendance numbers. He spoke the Truth, He didn't sugar coat the tough stuff and He definitely wasn't "seeker-friendly". In fact, He said some offensive, culturally challenging and sometimes crazy sounding stuff! But through those eleven men and others who heard and were "looked after", millions have come to know the truth! Why would we attempt to make any other strategy work, namely replacing true discipleship with three points and an alter call?

The second set of scriptures started in Romans 12. Paul is telling the believers in Rome to each glorify and further the Kingdom to the best of their abilities with the specific gifts that God gave them. (v 6,7) Also, 1 Corinthians 12 talks about how the unity of the body requires the uniqueness of each believer. I have concluded this: I don't believe every pastor is necessarily cut out for that position. While they each have specific gifts to offer the body, unless they are comfortable with literal "looking after" as written about in the New Testament, then their gifts might be better used from another area of leadership. Paul was a wonderful teacher and seemed especially gifted in exhortation as well. Not only did he preach when among the churches, but he developed leaders and structure. He also followed up with those churches, as seen in the New Testament letters, to assure that everything was still going well. What's important is that he was using his spiritual gifts with zeal. Even in Acts when a complaint arose on behalf of widows, the disciples recognized that it wouldn't be wise for the best preachers to stop teaching to take care of the distribution, instead it would be much smarter for responsible leaders with a gift of serving to do that. Lastly, just above that I stumbled on Acts 5:45 which says, "And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."

In summary, my prayer is that those who truly do have a teaching gift, would do it unceasingly! I hope that the role of pastor and shepherd would be taken more seriously. I earnestly desire that each believer would feel the urgency to use their skills for God's glory. I hope people recognize that Pastors get paid because they should be so busy "looking after" people that they don't have time to make any other living, not so that other believers are deemed unnecessary. Lastly, Lord please raise up a generation of pastors and mature believers who will make disciples that are comfortable continuing this process with their own unique gifts.