Player-Coach

Greg Ogden writes in Unfinished Business: Returning the Ministry to the People of God:

An equipping leader is fundamentally a player-coach. A coach has a game plan, a vision of how the game can be played. He or she also is vitally concerned that all the players on the team are valued for their contribution and growing in their giftedness so that they can make the maximum contribution to the whole team.

I think this is a very good description of what a pastor is called to do. Our task is to equip the members of our congregations so they can use the gifts God has given them in ministry. As more of our folks use their gifts the ministry of our churches will expand and impact the lives of more of the people in our communities.

Admittedly, this is a different model than many of our churches are used to. They are used to having a pastor who provided ministry while they sat back and evaluated how well we did. It will take some time to turn around the thinking in these churches so that people begin to see that God has gifted them to do ministry and has called them to that ministry the same as He called those of us who serve as pastors. The old preacher/teacher model that many of us were taught will not be able to help our churches make this shift. That is why I think the player/coach model is a much more biblical model for pastors in the 21st century. I also believe it is essential that those in bivocational ministry adopt this model for ministry. To have an effective ministry to our communities we have to have every member serving as a minister.

Ogden's book can help a pastor lead his or her church into the transition to make this happen.