In my last two blog articles, [1. https://jrieck.blogspot.com/2017/05/where-have-all-pastors-gone-2.html ; https://jrieck.blogspot.com/2017/04/where-have-all-pastors-gone.html ] I asked the question, “Where have all the Pastors gone?”
I have
asked this question from a Namibian context and perspective. Moral failure, personal discouragement,
financial problems and the like contribute to a number of pastors leaving the pastoral ministry in Namibia.
There is another matter to which I wish to direct our attention
now, and this concerns the lack of understanding in our community concerning
the nature of the work and calling of a biblical pastor.
So, what is a Pastor?
What sort of work does
a Pastor do?
These two questions deal with the Pastor’s essential being and
doing.
In our community by and large the expectations of the person and work of
the pastor have more in common with the job description of a CEO or of an events Co-ordinator. The church, correspondingly is then also
thought of mainly as a business or a cultural club or worse still, a place of
entertainment, where the “Wow
factor” would draw an audience.
Namibian
churches have, for some time now been
under the influence of leadership models, imported mainly from the
USA. Regular leadership seminars focussing essentially on church growth methods
are run by local organisations that represent Bill Hybels from the Willow Creek Association,
T.D. Jakes, the late Myles Munroe and John Maxwell.
The emphasis is generally on managerial technique,
pragmatic strategies, technological expertise, and many other pragmatic
methodologies for building churches. The
necessity of preaching the Word of God expositorially and leading churches scripturally and pastoring people lovingly and sacrificially, even at great personal
cost has been lost. The fact remains that the church in Namibia is simply not getting under the skin of our people.
Many Christians have no clue what a church ought to be and to do. Some time ago I
was asked to help in a leadership crisis of
another church in our city, and in asking some critical questions, I learned
that the church council saw the church as
a “club”, and acted accordingly
in seeking to resolve her leadership struggles. A biblical leader has a
considerably different framework of reference to a leader of a club!
Many pastors have an identity crisis, when it comes to understanding their calling. A number of years ago a pastor in our city committed suicide.
As the shockwaves swept through the community, it was time to take stock of
what had happened. The chief focus of the church that he served was the
organising of an annual fund raising event of note, which then would sustain
the church financially for the year. Much time and energy was required of the
pastor to manage this event. In thinking
about this I was wondering how much time this dear man would have had to feed
his own soul and also the souls of the congregation. How frustrating to know
that you are called to be a pastor, only to have your job description changed
into something that you were never called to be and do.
So, what is a Pastor called to be and to do?
The word ‘pastor’ is best translated as shepherd. A shepherd looks after sheep, and so a pastor-shepherd
looks after people. One of my favourite
little books on this subject of shepherding is entitled, “The
Work of the Pastor”, written by William Still who pastored a church in
Gilcomston, Scotland for 52 years. He
provides us with a succinct description of what a pastor is and what he does. In
the opening chapter he writes,
"Before we look at the
work of the pastor we must look at the pastor himself. The pastor by definition
is a shepherd, the under-shepherd of the flock of God. His primary task is
to feed the flock by leading them to green pastures. He also has to care for
them when they are sick or hurt, and seek them when they go astray. The
importance of the pastor depends on the value of the sheep. Pursue the pastoral
metaphor a little further: Israel’s sheep were reared, fed, tended,
retrieved, healed and restored – for sacrifice on the altar of God. This end of
all pastoral work must never be forgotten – that its ultimate aim is to lead
God’s people to offer themselves up to Him in total devotion of worship and
service. Many who are called pastors, having lost the end in view, or never
having seen it, become pedlars of various sorts of wares, gulling the people
and leading them into their own power. And when they fail to gather
a clientele for their own brand of merchandise they uptail and away, for
they are not really interested in the flock of God; they were using them only
as a means of their own aggrandisement, to boost their ego and indulge
their desire for power.
The fundamental responsibility of the pastor is to make sure
that the church is well fed on the Word of God. The goal of this feeding is
that the members should respond to the Word of God by offering themselves up in
heartfelt worship to God.
It is the Word of God, preached with the help of the Holy
Spirit that produces real change in the souls of men and women. This
presupposes that a pastor needs to be in touch with the God of the Word. A Scottish preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843)
said, “It is not great talents that God
blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.” A vibrant pastor knows the Living God and he
knows the Word of God. He who knows how to feed on the Word of God by
prayer can effectively feed others. There are obviously a number of ways to nurture
the souls of church members. Apart from
preaching in the context of an assembled worship gathering, the pastor also
leads small groups, as well as meeting
privately with individuals to counsel and instruct them in God’s Word and to
pray for them in accordance with the Word of God. He also trains and disciples
others to do the same.
The goal of all
pastoral leadership
is found in Ephesians 4:12-16
“…to equip the saints
for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ,
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and
carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in
deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the
truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into
Christ, from whom the whole body, joined
and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is
working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Notice the key phrases that
describe and define the work of the pastor
·
To equip
the saints for the work of
ministry
·
For
the building up of the
body of Christ
· (for
the purpose of) attaining to the unity of faith and of the knowledge
of Christ
·
(for
the purpose of) maturity
· (for
the purpose of) no longer being spiritual children… to grow up
spiritually.
·
(for
the purpose of) no longer being gullible
to all forms of false doctrine.
· (for
the purpose of) teaching their
congregation to speak the truth in love
…
building the church up in love.
This is the goal and
end for which the pastor exists and works.
Anything that will detract him from this
calling will make him useless and it
will not help the church at all.
The failure to do the
work of a pastor produces several symptoms.
As Jesus walked through the cities and villages of Galilee we
read,
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed
and helpless, like sheep without a
shepherd." (Matt. 9:36).
These
words could well be used to describe the members in many of our churches today.
The sheep are frustrated and discouraged because they are not receiving the
feeding and the primary care that they receive through healthy feeding upon the Word of God.Healthy feeders on the Word of God, possess strong spiritual immunity against all sorts of false teaching. They seldom cave in when things get tough, because the Great Shepherd is always in their vision. But for lack of proper feeding many of them are starving spiritually, and
some have begun to stray. Failure to do the work of pastoring therefore,
impacts church health.
This leads to another problem. Many poorly fed church members do church
hopping! Discouraged sheep wander from
church to church, and, in our Namibian context we have found that many church members migrate from church to
church, in search of the perfect church. There is, of course no perfect church
and no perfect pastor, BUT dare I say, that the best church they may find is
that imperfect church and pastor where the Bible is faithfully and consistently proclaimed, and where God and
people
are truly loved in a visible way. Such
churches see little migration,for there the sheep know that they are fed and
tended for the glory of God, and therefore they are satisfied.
That, I submit, is the grand work of the ordinary pastor. In His being and doing He exists for the Great Shepherd, who says to him, "Feed my sheep!" (John 21:15-17)
