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    Monday, April 24, 2006

    Call to Leadership

    I've been thinking, it seems like one good Biblical answer for where to get a pastor when your local church doesn't have one is in the local church. The more I understand the necessity of a strong core of leaders besides a preaching pastor, and see that Paul's "pastor", "elder", "overseer", and "bishop" are pretty much the same thing, the more I think that "what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2) is a quintessential descriptor of church leadership.

    I used to always see that verse just in a lay discipleship sense, which is certainly true, but I'm now also seeing these 4 generations of believing leaders (Paul --> Timothy --> faithful men --> others) as an ecclesiastical model.

    Some theoretical benefits of raising up a pastor from the church:
    - Can lessen the effect of a pastor leaving and people not being able to accept the new pastor, or having a spell of ineffectiveness in transition. While there still might be tendency for a cult of personality, if it's all about grooming a leader in the footsteps of one pointing to Christ, it could provide a safeguard.
    - You know your new pastor. He knows you. You understand both his qualification for eldership and his personality quirks. It seems like the current way to shop for a pastor is like going on several blind dates, after which you call one back for a second date and then propose marriage.

    posted by Kibble @ 8:47 PM   2 comments

    2 Comments:

    At 4/25/2006 9:37 AM, Blogger t4keri said...

    It sort of makes me take another look at seminaries and how they've become, in some people's minds, the only way to train up a new pastor so that he is adequately qualified. Apprenticeship within a church body seems to be a more practical approach to keeping a church alive. Just a thought.

     
    At 5/01/2006 5:59 PM, Blogger Darren said...

    As someone who wants to become a pastor himself, I am all for the apprenticeship approach. Why do we need to send our men away for three or more years to learn and study and lose what they might be able to add to the local church from whence they came. (Yes, I did use the word whence) I don't say this to put seminaries down, I do think that they serve a vital role. But our mindset in the American church is that we need to send and get our pastors to seminary in order to make them qualified. Seminary doesn't make a man qualified, it can only hone the tools necessary for pastoring. Anyway, to make a long comment short, I agree with you, leadership should be raised from within.

     

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