How I serve as a pastor without strong pastoral gifts (Part 3)

Continued from part 2…

As a leader who loves to lead and a preacher who loves to preach, I must recognize that I am not preaching to or leading just a congregation, but also unique people who make up that congregation. How, then, should I be thinking about these individuals I serve?

Having a vision statement and purpose plan is great; heading in a common direction is necessary. The church needs a leader, but the church also needs to grow into a healthy unit. Our job is not just to lead the congregation to the promised land, but to also ensure the people are cared for and healthy along the way.

Is there a balance in all of this? I think so. I don’t have the gift of counseling or mercy, so I have been learning to train and release leaders in my congregation to display those gifts. I’m not the primary counselor for those who come through our doors. If you want to talk to the pastor in our church, it’s not always going to happen right away.

However, I do keep my eyes and ears open. I try to stop in at the hospital if someone is sick—although they don’t expect it because we have a great prayer and elder team and supportive small groups. I’ll hear about someone who is hurting and if I feel led I’ll take him to coffee and listen and laugh and learn. If pastoral care is required I’ll refer a person to someone I know who manifests a counseling gift, or to a small group where I know they will receive care.

To make sure people do receive care, we are working on multiplying small groups, and we are developing training for more leaders to “shepherd the flock over which God has made you overseers” (Acts 20). We do this because people are not hindrances to our ministry—people are our ministry.

We develop small groups and teams, and release ministry to leaders, because I have found that if I try to be the personal shepherd to the whole church, I will invariably disappoint the people who are counting on me to be their primary personal spiritual caregiver. So I am attempting to contextualize Jethro’s advice to Moses, and I’m working hard to figure out how the choosing of the seven in Acts 6 can be walked out where I serve. I’m learning that I can care for my people best when I do not carry the responsibility to personally follow up with each person.

Jerry Cook wrote the following in his classic book, Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness, “It is not the pastor’s job to care for every person in the church, it is the pastor’s job to make sure that every person in the church [can be] cared for.”

Amen, Jerry. Thanks for reminding me that the church is full of amazing and gifted people, and even though I may not counsel or “pastor” well, there are many who have been given that gift. For the lead pastor or the paid staff to try to do it all steals ministry away from the rest of the Body and gives the congregation, and the leaders, a false messiah complex that should never be embraced or encouraged.