SuperPastor

Updating this blog has been a challenge this year. I am preaching a series of five messages in one of the churches I serve in addition to all my other responsibilities, and I haven't had much time to spend on the computer. The series of messages is to encourage the church to look into ways they can become more missional in their approach to ministry. Following the first two messages we had a light lunch with a Q&A time which has been a great follow-up to the messages. It gives people an opportunity to ask questions about the message while they are fresh in their minds.

This Sunday I am talking about the need to remove the idea of SuperPastor from everyone's minds. A church cannot wait for the pastor to touch everything before something happens. This is true in all size churches, and it is certainly true in bivocational churches. Our churches have to learn to be more permission-giving and allow ministry to happen without the pastor always being personally involved.

For some pastors that will be difficult. Some of us went into the ministry with a huge desire to be needed by other people. We may complain about the SuperPastor expectations people put on us, but the truth is some of us have put those expectations on ourselves. Many of us have never been trained in how to give people permission to go forward with their ministry ideas nor have we learned how to equip our congregation so they can use the gifts God has given them. Frankly, many of us have also learned that it is often easier to do it ourselves rather than train others to do ministry. At least it will be done right... according to our standards.

Yet, our churches will never have the impact on our communities as long as pastors have to personally be involved in every ministry that our church is involved in. According to Ephesians 4 our job is to train and equip the laity to do the work of ministry, and we we do that we will help turn those members into missionaries to our communities. That is when our churches will begin to have their maximum impact on those communities.