The pastor shortage Part 3

 In recent posts I've been addressing the pastor shortage that is impacting our churches. If you haven't read those, I encourage you to go back and do so. Today, I want to continue this discussion with an additional thought about pastoral leadership and its value to our churches.

In the past post I focused on some things judicatories can do to help their pastors and relieve some of the pressures of pastoral ministry. Another thing our judicatory was able to do when I was serving on our staff was to help relieve some of the financial burdens our pastors felt. We were able to do that due to a very generous grant made available to us through Lilly. We were able to pay off student debt, medical bills, and other debts our pastors had. Can you imagine the impact that had on those pastors and their families? We also sought donations from our churches into a fund to enable us to continue to support our pastors in this way. Since I've been retired for a few years and out of the loop, I don't know if this program still exists or not, but we made a major impact on the finances of our pastors through this opportunity.

Again I am emphasizing the impact a judicatory can have on the health of its pastoral leadership. When pastors feel supported and appreciated by their judicatory leadership, they are less likely to leave the ministry. But, there is another advantage here that judicatories can enjoy. You can attract better pastors to the churches in your region. When pastors see that they are going to be supported by the judicatory they are going to become more interested in serving in that region or district.

No one has influenced me more in the area of leadership than John Maxwell. In his wonderful book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,  he begins with Law 1, the Law of the Lid. The Law of the Lid says that no organization can rise any higher than the lid of its leadership. If the leader of any organization, including churches, has a leadership lid of a four, it can never rise higher than a 3 in effectiveness. The only way to raise the effectiveness of the organization is to raise the lid of its leadership.

As a lay leader in a church, do you want to improve the effectiveness of your church? The only way to do that is to raise the leadership lid of your pastor and lay leaders. As a judicatory leader, do you want to raise the effectiveness of the churches in your judicatory? The only way to do that is to raise the leadership lid of your pastors and the lay leaders in your churches. In the midst of a pastor shortage, do you want to raise the leadership lid of the pastors in your judicatory? The only way to do that is to attract the best pastors to serve in your judicatory, and the way to do is to become known as a judicatory who best serves its pastors. When you become knows as a judicatory that appreciates and supports its pastors, you will find pastors taking a second look at your open churches. As you attract better pastors and leaders to serve in your judicatory, you will find your judicatory begin to grow. Your churches become healthier, and they begin to grow. You have better leaders to serve in positions within your judicatory. It's a win for everyone!