Christan leadership is by example

I just read an email from the local leader of my church's denomination. It said that, "The role of the pastor in vital congregations is different. These pastors are empowering and equipping lay persons for leadership and ministry. They are not spending 80% of their time taking care of the church’s members. They spend more time preparing their sermons and constantly ask themselves how the guest will be impacted by the message. “Will the message invite persons to follow as one of Jesus’ disciples? Will it encourage them to live in God’s Kingdom? Will it attract them to lead a different life than they lived the previous week?”" I'm not convinced that this will make a congregation any more vital in today's world.

If the goal is to connect with those searching for God who are not already connected to a body of believers, then I believe sermon preparation should not be the bulk of any pastor's effort. Spending the bulk of time in caring for the needs of the congregants isn't the way, either, in my book. There is another way that is far more Jesus-like.

When I look at Jesus' example I see a leader who spent a lot of his time teaching his followers how to do the work of spreading God's love with people who didn't yet get it. The Bible does not say that he spent 80% of his time hand-holding with his followers; neither does it say that he spent 50% of his time preparing his next message. He lived his life out in the community. He spent much of it mixing with the crowds and taking his followers along with him. They saw him at his Father's work and they learned from him.

Jesus is recorded as having sent the disciples (read: students) out in pairs to practice the work of ministry in the world. He did not suggest (according to scripture) that they spend the majority of their time thinking about what they would say the next time they spoke. (Peter and Paul, in Acts, are said to have relied totally on the Spirit to provide the words a couple of times.) They were commanded to preach the Gospel and heal illnesses and cast out demons. (Luke 9) No mention is made of sermon prep or study. I believe life was the study. The words they needed flowed from their experiences.

What experiences do many pastors have nowadays? Sadly, too many are limited to official church meetings with lay people and staff, sermon prep and study, and (far too often) a limited family/social life. Fortunately there are some pastors who fight the modern paradigm and spend a significant time out in the community, but that should be the norm, not the exception for pastors.

I am of the school of "lead by example". The example that is too often set for believers is that of spending a great deal of time thinking and praying and studying with a very limited interaction with the greater community. How do we know how to love our neighbor when no one is showing us how? I long for the pastor who empowers people by living in community with them and mentoring some who can then mentor others in the faith; this opposed to the pastor who leads primarily from the pulpit and in isolation from the greater community.

I would plead with all the pastors I know to consider cutting back on investment in the sermon and increasing their investment in discipling (read: living alongside) some key people who could then begin discipling others, and so on. That's where the Good News is truly shared and understood: face-to-face and in community.

The sermon is a valuable tool for believers, but not as valuable as being discipled by a faithful, growing, practicing Christian. And the sermon rarely reaches those who are outside the church's walls, which is a rapidly growing group. Are we really expecting guests in our worship services to be a primary avenue of evangelism? We are blessed by each and every person, guest or believer, who walks into our building, but how many more people do we abandon to the world because we focus on the few who are willing to brave entering our strange new world. Go out into the world, believers! Show others how to do it! Be uncomfortable yourselves, rather than waiting for the searcher to show the courage. Light does not wait for the darkness to come to it. Light spreads itself out. If we are to be a Light in the world, we must go out and we need pastors to lead in action, more than by word.