Stepping up the game

Last night we said goodbye to our Youth Minister/Associate Pastor. He's leaving for a three month sabbatical and will return as the new Senior Pastor of the church. This sabbatical had been approved and planned several months before being called as pastor, and it was important for him to enjoy it. I've agreed to remain as Transitional Pastor until he returns in late August.

Part of that agreement is that I will be covering some of his responsibilities. That will be big. He's been at this church 26 years so he's been counted on to do a lot of things! An individual in the church will be the lead person working with the youth, and a group of parents will be assisting. Most of my added work will be in the area of pastoral care and administration. Some of this I had already been doing, but this area of responsibility will be greater while he's gone.

When serving as a Region Minister I was often frustrated by the attitudes of some pastoral candidates when they would tell our churches seeking pastors that they did not do certain things. One common complaint I often heard from the search teams was about the number of younger candidates who told them they did not visit people in their homes, in the hospital or anywhere else. While I agree with some of that, I find it appalling to hear ministers say they refuse to do some particular ministerial task.

Let me explain. I do believe that many churches, especially smaller ones, expect the pastor to do too much visiting of the members. I've long advocated that churches need to move to a congregational care model of ministry instead of a pastoral care. However, there are times when the pastor needs to make such visits. To say pointblank that they don't do that ministry tells me they have a very poor concept of pastoral ministry.

I was once part of a conversation where a congregational member asked the pastor to cover for him one Sunday when he would be away. The pastor  became obviously upset and told the member he had told the church when he came that he would not do that, and refused. The member reminded him it would only be this one time, but the pastor still refused. Later, the church member told me this was the attitude the pastor took when anyone asked him to do something he did not want to do. The pastor did not remain at the church very long after that episode. BTW - In my opinion what the pastor was being asked to do was not out of line.

It's important for a pastor to have a job description, but at the same time ministry requires a lot of flexibility on the part of the one called. There are aspects of ministry I would rather not do, but it comes with the territory. Long ago I adopted the philosophy most bivocational ministers have: "Whatever it takes."

Every leader is sometimes asked to step up their game a little bit and do extra to make their organization function better. Pastors are no different. When you need to step up your game a little look at it as an opportunity to grow yourself and your church.