Wednesday, May 29, 2013
What's At Heart
In a great article @ 9Marks, Bobbie Jamieson:
At bottom here is the point that pastors are not in business to build organizations, they are in business to build people.
Read the whole thing.
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In other words, a pastor’s job is to equip the church members to do ministry, to build each other up in maturity. To tweak Hansen’s image, a pastor’s job isn’t merely to fish for his people—though that’s certainly part of it—but to teach them to fish. And I’d suggest that a fitting litmus test for a pastor is how much joy he takes in others’ works of ministry, and how well he builds his ministry around that joy.
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In light of this, pastors shouldn’t stockpile ministry. Instead, they should spread it around.
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There’s a heart issue lurking here. Our pride can thrill at a ministry job well done—especially if that job is duly noted by church members. It takes real humility, therefore, to take the spotlight off yourself and shine it onto others. It takes genuine self-forgetfulness to enlist someone else to do something you could do better, for the sake of that person’s, and ultimately the whole church’s, growth in Christ.
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What are some practical outworkings of this posture of joy in others’ ministry? Here are three.To his list of "practical outworkings" I would add one other - "Let them fail." Failure is a part of the learning process. Yes, it can reflect badly on "your church," but ten that's the problem really, isn't it? It's not your church - it's theirs. The short term ramifications of a failure like this will be more tan compensated for in the development of your people.
Give Ministry Away
Affirm and Encourage, as Well as Critique
Think a Step Further Out
At bottom here is the point that pastors are not in business to build organizations, they are in business to build people.
Read the whole thing.
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