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May 07, 2006
Difficult but not Impossible
It is an awesome responsibility to be a pastor. In fact, it is downright difficult to be effective today as a pastor. There are so many expectations and they change depending on where you are serving.
Sometimes churches do not send clear messages as to what they desire in a pastor. A good example of that is when churches say, "We need a leader." This is often interpreted by the pastor to mean that congregants are willing to surrender their thoughts and ideas for her or his ideas or thoughts. That is not necessarily true. In a book from the Harvard Business Review entitled "On Finding and Keeping the Best People," the authors lift up the idea of a self-reliant worker that I believe can add to this conversation. This is what they say: "Self-reliant workers stand ready to reinvent themselves in order to keep pace with change."
If there is one thing we know today about "doing church," it is that church is not the same today as it was 40, 30, 20, or even 10 years ago. So, it is impossible for pastors who refuse to retool or as Harvard Business Review says, "reinvent" themselves to be effective as the conditions in which we live continue to change and the people change as well that we are called to serve and appeal to. One style of leadership is not enough. We must be adaptive not only as we move from church to church but as we face different situations within the same church.
"It is difficult to be effective today as a pastor" is the second sentence I wrote in this posting. Notice I did not say it was impossible, I only said it is difficult. It calls for more commitment, more openness to new ideas, more flexibility, more study, and above all a closer walk with God.
Posted by Bishop at May 7, 2006 10:53 PM