Podcast: Release to Pastor
Brian Fenimore and Ben Pasley work together every month to equip Church leadership in Woodland Park, CO. Here Ben teaches on the practicals of pastoring.
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A Basic Overview of Church Leadership
Introduction
This document began as a topical letter addressed to the leaders of a local fellowship in the fall of 2008. I wrote it as a response to their request that we get all our thoughts on the table concerning what local Church leadership should look like, how it should function, and what these thoughts might imply to them as they were looking to upgrade their own leadership model. At that time their leadership model was, for all practical purposes, a very traditional protestant fellowship model which had at its apex a senior pastor, then a board of directors sometimes called elders, and a few folks doing other kinds of leadership works like children’s ministry or hospitality. There were two paid staff that included, of course, the senior pastor and the full time worship leader. Since that time many things have changed, and I believe they have been changes for the better.
This document might be read after the article at Churchthink I titled, “Receiving the Apostle” which was written earlier to the key elder at the same local fellowship.
Not everything I have submitted in what follows (the great majority of which is the original letter which forecast my sense of coming changes) was immediately agreed with or even followed precisely even up to this day. I say this with a sense of humor as I submit these thoughts to you for consideration because I smile when I realize that no man is smart enough to know how, when, and where everything “ought” to happen in any fellowship or gathering of the family of God. It takes us all to work this stuff out.
The Spiritually Far-Sighted
Are You Spiritually Far-Sighted?
It was back in 2005 that I started tapping on my computer screen and yelling at it because it was blurring in and out of focus. I would lean in and sometimes it would appear clearer, I would restart my computer and sometimes it would look better. "Blink^##(#& monitors," I would say in hopes that harsh words would make them wise up. Really, how could two new monitors have gone bad so quickly. So, obviously, I sold them on eBay and went out and bought some nicer ones, bigger ones, and justified it easily when my wife questioned the expense. When I got them home I couldn't believe it. Same problem! What was going on? My wife comes in during one of my fits and makes the statement filled with all wisdom and insight,
"You need to get your eyes checked."
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Inviting the Apostle
Introduction
This article is really a letter and response between myself and a friend who is a pastor at a local fellowship. Names and details are changed a bit, and some of the passages were shortened or modified a bit to make it more readable. This, unlike other Churchthink articles, is not an essay or a collection of carefully studied themes, but rather a real time look into some of my personal correspondence with another human being. This realtime letter exchanged originally via email and PDF document outlines the difficulties and excitement of putting the apostolic grace into play at a local fellowship...even one that has been around for a long time. Don’t expect every point to be made perfectly because when two friends talk some things are just assumed between them like trust, humor, and history. There will be other times to do a more formal treatment of this subject. Enjoy!
Ben Pasley
The Letter and Response
Dear Skip,
I have decided to put some important points down on paper for you. I have really enjoyed the conversational, relaxed format of our conversations over the last season related to the Kingdom, Church, leadership, apostles, and sonship, etc., but this is the season, I believe, to create a more exacting dialogue. Your recent email will serve as a helpful outline for many of my thoughts. I will highlight your email in red for visual fun.
Pastor: The Verb, Podcast 3
Ben is joined by good friend Karla Adolphe to read and discuss the latest Churchthink article on the beautiful grace of pastoring. Part 3 of 3.
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Pastor: The Verb, Podcast 2
Ben is joined by good friend Karla Adolphe to read and discuss the latest Churchthink article on the beautiful grace of pastoring. Part 2 of 3.
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Pastor: The Verb, Podcast 1
Ben is joined by good friend Karla Adolphe to read and discuss the latest Churchthink article on the beautiful grace of pastoring. Part 1 of 3.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Pastor: The Verb
The Gift is the Person
There are leadership graces for the Church and none of them are abilities--they are all people.
I am going to make this emphasis on people over ability for a very important reason. Let that sink in just a bit. I am touching on a couple of common ideas and ways of speaking. The question I am already posing to you is, “Do you carry gifts with you, or are you the gift?” Read on, and I will try to bring some deep encouragement to you as a leader.
It might be true that graces and gifts are things given to men just as it says in Ephesians 4:7, “to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it,” and in Romans 8, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us...” but to imagine these leadership gifts as externalized feature sets is an awkward proposal. What I mean by this is that gifts and graces do not exist in concept or in concrete form outside of a person, and I believe this truth is simple and instinctive.
Separating Family from Forms…
I have been recently inspired to give you all permission to continue to give voice to complaints and fears and frustations with systems like "mega-church" or "home church". This is not because ChurchThink is a place for cynics or bitter diatribes. I offer you this encouragement because we are all learning that the Form is not synonymous with the Family. The Family of God, her leaders, and her folk find themselves moving in and out of many different kinds of organization models, traditions of order, i.e. systems, that will, by their very nature, give rise to certain graces and certain pathologies. These pros and cons should be on the table for reasonable discussion, and they can be given we do not try to merge Form and Family.
Let me offer you a picture. The Family is a living, beautiful vine of real lives growing together in love with Christ and with one another. A systems of organization is like the wooden structure in a garden, the trellis, where the vine often finds its way and direction to grow. I am committed to loving the vine...are you?
I think we can challenge the nature and shape of the trellis all day. I think that at ChurchThink.com we should focus on discerning the Form from the Family so our minds can be sharp to see and understand the differences. I am OK with challenging the trellis...are you?
I would like to hear your thoughts. What are some word pictures, allegories, imaginations you have that help us better see the difference between the organizations in which we move, and the actual "us" that is doing the moving? I bet these pictures will help us be better lovers of what Christ truly loves...
What is our work?
In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul makes it very clear with the exclamation, "no more boasting about men!" that attaching our identity to human beings, by their reputation or gift, is a mistake because we cling to Christ alone. With that safety mechanism intact let's glance at verses 6 through 17 and dig up the word's and pictures he uses to describe serving, or working for, the followers of Jesus. Why? Because in our journey here in "ChurchThink" we don't want to create our concepts of God's family or the ministry work of Christ's followers from our present environment or from recent tradition. We should examine how Paul and his comrades viewed both. Since they had no self-aggrandizing view of leadership it should be safe for us to examine their best thoughts, their real actions, and what they encouraged each other to do.
Some of the action words related to this work: planting, watering, labor, work, building, and foundation laying.
Some of the pictures describing the object of work: "you are God's field", "[you are God's] building", and "you yourselves are God' temple."
Please, please help me! With all of our work to build buildings made of stone, and temples made of ideas...does anyone have some practical clues on how to "lay a foundation inside someone"? Or how to actually "water" a "field" of people so they grow? I am not interested in concepts or artsy talk. I want the nitty gritty of doing this stuff, and I think leaning on Paul and his fellow apostles' work would be a good place to start...