People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
A Growth Pastor
by James W. Moss, Sr.
It takes a quality pastor to grow a church. I have only known of two instances in my 40 years of ministry where the laity were strong enough to overcome incompetent pastoral leadership and grow the church for more than two years. I have known of scores of high quality pastors in settings where the churches they served did not grow.
There are factors beyond quality pastoral leadership that may inhibit the growth of the church. Some of these factors are outlined in the basic People Spot principles. Certain community settings make it difficult for a quality pastor to grow a church. Alligators (difficult lay persons or clergy killers) can make it difficult to grow the church.
Several factors are very important in the life of a growth pastor. A number of these a listed.
A Spiritual Person
1. A growth pastor must be a committed Christian.
2. A growth pastor must be committed to the Word and prayer.
3. A growth pastor must experience a God-given call to ministry. The call is twofold. One is a general call to ministry. The second must be a call to a specific assignment. People will not tend to ride through the rough times without a call.
4. A growth pastor must have a passion for the ministry. There must be a desire to win each person to Christ. There has to be a desire to serve with excellence.
A Leader
1. A growth pastor must understand that the call of God is not to privilege but to service. Jesus understood clearly that leaders earn the right to lead by serving. A servant leader ministers to the needs of others.
2. A growth pastor must love the people they serve. You can’t pastor people you don’t love. They will not permit you to do so. You may preach to them but they will not allow you to pastor them, and there is a difference. People in a church will generally only follow a leader who they know loves them. The people can be very gracious and forgiving with a pastor who cares.
3. Understand and appreciate the culture of the community. Our conference in Pennsylvania spreads from Lancaster to Bedford, from Mt. Carmel to the Maryland Line and beyond. There are at least six major different cultures represented by those churches. Some can cross those lines and function effectively. Others aren’t patient enough to learn or appreciate the culture and will fail. Generally, culture is not right or wrong. It just is. The pastor who elects to fight the culture will lose.
4. A growth pastor must have reasonable people skills. This may be one of the most important skills on this list. Simply stated, the pastor must practice the Golden Rule and treat people the way they want to be treated. Abused people become bitter. It has amazed me in more than 20 years as a conference staff person at how many pastors have stumbled here.
5. A growth pastor must have a teachable spirit. Ministry and life is in such a state of flux that pastors must be open to new directions.
6. A growth pastor must have a good work ethic. The pastor must be a self-starter, reasonably organized, and have the capacity to turn away from time wasters to stay focused on ministry. There are many good claims on the pastor’s time that are not the best claims or what the pastor had been hired to do. Many good organizations and causes claim time that take away from the pastor’s primary task. The time wasters are many: some people, television, computers, and more recently the web can consume huge amounts of time that really isn’t ministry–frankly, things the pastor was not hired to do.
7. A growth pastor must work at the right things. I know some pastors who have worked hard but never saw growth in their churches because they weren’t working at the right things. There are basic factors which impact growth in a church. These must move front and center. The pastor must understand and address them.
8. A growth pastor must be a reasonable communicator. Leaders must be able to articulate if people are to follow. It helps if the pastor can preach effectively. Quality preaching will assist in the retention of people. However, I have known some people who were able to hold churches together and even grow them in spite of poor preaching skills. Conversely, I have known some fantastic pulpiteers who had trouble growing churches long-term because of failings in other areas.
9. A growth pastor must be a visionary. The pastor has to be able to dream dreams. The pastor must be able to look at their church and picture it as being more than what it is. A dream must be a challenge. It might even be a stretch. At the same time the dream must be achievable. One will never take the first step to reach the unreachable dream.
A Whole/Well Adjusted Person
1. A growth pastor must be psychologically stable. Virtually any personality type can grow a church. However, it appears that "D"s and "I"s on the DiSC scale will tend to grow churches faster.
2. Growth pastors must take care of their family responsibilities. The pastor must feel a sense responsibility for spouse and children. I have listened to a number of adult children of clergy parents express their frustration and even bitterness toward the church for stealing their parents from them. That shouldn’t be.
3. A growth pastor must be responsible financially. The pastor must tithe if the people are expected to do so. Many pastors loose credibility in a community because of poor financial practices.
Does a pastor have to be a super human to be a growth pastor? The answer is "no." Special gifts are required to take a church significantly above 200. However, I must say it is my observation that pastoral ministry is more complex than in other eras. What is required to make churches work has risen. Expectations for pastors by their churches has risen. These expectations frequently rise in direct proportion to the rise of the percentage of the pastoral support package relative to the total budget of the church. I suggest that staff expenses should not exceed 45% of the total income.
A Good Book. Warren W. and David W. Wiersbe. 10 Power Principles for Christian Service. Baker Books, 1997.
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Read about Jim's seminars and books.
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February 23, 2000, Volume 3, Issue 2. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.