Correcting a Pastoral Model in the Contemporary Church

Walk with Teams

I knew “the buck stops here”, with me. But I had wonderfully gifted people around me to sound out my ideas, check my leadings from the Lord, and make up for my deficiencies in ministry and wisdom, as together, we looked for an agreed witness of the Spirit in our deliberations.

In this series, I have been presenting the case against pastors seeing themselves in a “sole leadership” position. Not only is this a sub apostolic practice, it isolates pastors under a burden of responsibility no-one is equipped to bear.

In New Testament times, the terms ‘pastor’, ‘elder’ and ‘overseer’ all referred to the same calling. ‘Pastor’ describes function, ‘elder’, qualification and ‘overseer’, role. Local churches were led by teams of acknowledged pastors/elders/overseers.

Fivefold ministry

Within this overall leadership category, the 5 ministry gifts of Ephesians 4:11 function: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Each of these specialise in different kinds of ministry. They are the gifts of Christ distributed to his body, the Church. He had them all and we need them all.  If any of these ministries operated translocally, they had no governing authority independent of the local eldership or leadership team. Translocal governorship does not appear to exist in the New Testament church.

Apostolic teams had a translocal role in establishing new churches and appointing elders, but their on-going role was not perceived as translocal eldership. For a while, Paul continued to oversee the churches he planted, but it seems he was not an on-going part of the local church governing body. That was the responsibility of the local eldership team, the pastors and overseers.

In the local church, there is always a plurality of eldership, but this does not rule out a ‘first among equals’ or a ‘presiding elder’, such as appears to be the case in the Jerusalem church, where James seems to have that role (Acts 15).

The power of teams

If this analysis is to a certain extent correct, then it shows that pastors should never walk alone. They function in teams with each duly appointed leader having a helpful and distinctive contribution to make. While there are many different styles, collegiate and co-operative leadership is essential.

Throughout my time in ministry, I have always worked in teams appreciating what others bring to the table. I never saw myself in monarchical leadership and was all too aware of the dangers it brings and its tendency towards becoming authoritarian, dictatorial and severely truncated. Who, apart from Jesus, can bring the full complement of ability and wisdom to the table? We need each other.

That is why I worked hard to break down the so-called clergy-laity divide. Those who led from a full-time position in professional or occupational life were equal to those whose sphere of ministry was centred around full time work in the church. That meant, though I often felt lonely, I was never actually alone. I knew “the buck stops here”, with me. But I had wonderfully gifted people around me to sound out my ideas, check my leadings from the Lord, and make up for my deficiencies in ministry and wisdom, as together, we looked for an agreed witness of the Spirit in our deliberations.

Celebrating our differences

Maturity in life, ministry and the workplace all came together in the gift-mix of our teams. We looked beyond ourselves and drew from the spiritual wisdom of the whole church. We recognised and celebrated our different gifts and areas of expertise. We discerned the full range of Christ’s gifts among us from the apostolically-minded to the didactically-gifted, from the prophetically-motivated to the pastorally-equipped and the evangelistically-enthused.  

For too long, churches and denominations have paid mere lip service to these New Testament principles. It is time for a bold and thorough-going reformation. We must move intentionally, albeit probably gradually, establishing these uniform principles and expressing them in the myriad patterns that can emerge from them. One size does not fit all, but we must nevertheless fully embrace the principles laid down by the Apostles.

What price failure?

The first casualty is the traditional-style pastor who inevitably functions below potential. Loneliness, discouragement and burn out often set in, sometimes compensated by increasing defensiveness, insecurity and self-referential promotion. The next casualty is the life and health of the church whose truncated leadership can never build the body of Christ correctly or bring it to full maturity. Finally, the casualty is our mission which a weak and ineffectual church can never fulfill.