You Have a New Pastor, Now What?
A friend of mine recently entered a new ministry. I don’t know the details of his move, or the history of the church, but the news sparked some thinking about churches and new pastors. My own ministry will face that prospect within the next decade, most likely. Sometimes churches and pastors struggle with the transition. What should they think to avoid conflict over the inevitable adjustments to come?
The Lord and the apostles use various metaphors to describe the church, each of them instructive about its nature and internal relationships in one way or another. The church is sometimes “a building,” “a body,” “the bride of Christ,” “the family of God,” “the temple of the Spirit,” and so on. These metaphors describe the relationship of the members of the church to each other or of the church (individually and corporately) to God. There is one more metaphor that in particular is also useful for the relationship of pastor and people, and that is “flock.” The church is God’s flock, and in service to the Great Shepherd, the pastor serves as Shepherd, under the supervision of our Lord Jesus. The term “pastor” is in fact “shepherd,” the very title a metaphor for the role.
No one metaphor can fully explain every aspect of a relationship, nor should we press it to an absurdity. Literal sheep have no say in the selection of their shepherd. The members of the church are unlike sheep in many ways, yet the metaphor persists and is an apt one to describe the main relationship between pastor and people.
When Jesus restored Peter after the denial, he admonished him three times. “Feed my lambs,” he said in Jn 21.15, and again, “Feed my sheep,” in Jn 21.16 1 and yet again, “Feed my sheep,” in Jn 21.17. No surprise, then, that Peter gives us the passage that makes the most use of the shepherd/sheep metaphor in the epistles. (1 Pt 5.1-5) Paul also touches on the theme in his sermon to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20.28) and in the passage on local church spiritual growth in Ephesians (Eph 4.11ff.)
Jesus told Peter to feed the sheep. Paul spoke of pastors who are among God’s gifts to the church (Eph 4.11) in order to “equip the saints” (“perfecting the saints” kjv). In the Acts 20 sermon, Paul called the pastors to be on the watch for themselves and the flock. A primary way of doing that is “shepherding” the church of God, especially because of enemies without and within who would seek to draw away disciples after them. In Peter’s epistle, shepherding includes the function of oversight (with proper motives) and providing an example in light of the coming of the Chief Shepherd who will call his “under-shepherds” to account one day.
With these images in mind, I’d like to give some insight on things church people should be expecting and a new pastor should be doing when a new man comes to fill the pulpit and lead the church.
You can find various pastoral job descriptions online. I’ve read through a few of them, any church or pastor should be able to glean insight from them to inform their expectations. My only caution is a reaction I have to the overuse of “corporate America” ideas for pastoral ministry. The church is not a corporation, the pastor is not a paid preacher — he is a called minister. There is a difference between a ministry and a job. I’m not sure I can easily explain the difference, but the pastor isn’t the CEO of a disciple making factory, expected to produce so many widgets (disciples) per year.
Nevertheless, what we glean from job descriptions (and more so from the Scriptures mentioned above) is that the primary function of the pastor is preaching and teaching. The objective of that preaching and teaching is the formation of Christian character (disciple-making). In order to produce disciples, the pastor must continually impart much Bible content. In addition, he must genuinely model faithful application of the Bible (how else to be an example?). And, critically, the pastor and the flock need to guard against the wiles of false teachers that so often sway churches across the land.
The most visible part of pastoral ministry is the teaching ministry. Perhaps it is also the most vital. The act of shepherding (pastoring) is the act of feeding. In the shepherd/sheep metaphor, that means taking the flock to the green pastures and the cool waters. It means the pastor needs to feed himself as well, and then lead the flock to those choice pastures so they, too, may safely graze. I don’t think the church should put a premium on sermon length or numbers of Bible studies/preaching sessions. Some men can impart in ten words what it takes others fifty to say. The key is this: are the sheep being fed? The church should look for a man devoted to the Lord and the Scriptures who is “apt to teach” (1 Tim 3.2). The pulpit ministry should feed the people the word of God that they might grow thereby.
Should a church expect a minimum number of messages? What about sermon length? Should a sermon be at least so long, or no longer than a specific time? The message must be long enough to communicate enough Bible for the purpose of disciple-making step by step. The sermon should be more than a sermonette, but less than a never-ending harangue! Due care must take into consideration the frailties of the flesh (both the desire for ease [sermonette style] and the capacity for reception [mental overload]). As a new pastor settles in to a new ministry, the congregation should not expect him to be like the previous pastor and should give time to let him find the most effective means of getting the good stuff out of the Word. The pastor adapts himself to the congregation; the congregation adapts itself to the pastor.
Besides teaching, there is leading. Peter calls it “oversight” [bishop-ing] (1 Pt 5.2). The pastor needs skills to administer the mundane affairs of the church, working with all those volunteers who serve in the Sunday school, building maintenance, office administration and all those other many activities that a church finds itself doing. Every ministry is different in terms of specific administrative duties; some own buildings, others rent, some have Christian schools, others do not. In the area of administration, the new pastor will need the help of involved volunteers in order to understand all the activities that make up the church’s life. As he comprehends the ministry, he may find new ways of doing old things. Or he may find new things that need doing! The church will need to grow with him as changes come about in administrative practices. They should remember, however, that the administration of affairs is the means to the end, not the end itself. The end of the church’s activity is disciple-making, which is a product, primarily, of the spiritual ministry of preaching and teaching.
Both pastor and people need patience as they grow together into the shepherd/flock relationship. They need insight from the Holy Spirit and a commitment to accomplishing Christ’s mission in their local field. May God grant us all the grace we need to accomplish the Lord’s ministry in our place of service.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.