What makes a Great Pastor and a great Church?

I only stumbled upon these questions in the fog of my thinking yesterday. As with most questions I suppose that the answers will depend upon who is asked. If I ask 100 random people in downtown Portland (not a bad idea I guess) what the ingredients of a great church are and what makes up a great pastor, I think I would get different answers than if I went to church’s on Sunday and asked the people trickling out the same question. I wonder why that is? If I went to the Evergreen Community I would probably get a different set of answers than if I went to St Mark’s Anglican downtown, or Good Shepherd in Boring. The Pentecostals will probably give a different answer to the the orthodox Presbyterians; protestants might answer differently to Catholics. Clearly the most important person to ask the questions of is God. But even then the answers will be somewhat subjective.

The “great pastor” question is probably more on my mind these days but it cannot be untied from the “great church” question. Moving  made me empty file upon file of old papers. I came across letters from students and parishioners thanking me for the role I played in their lives. It is very cool to be reminded of those days in that way…

…But I am also keenly aware that there are people who want nothing to do with me anymore after my indiscretions and my spiritual abuse. I did much good in the days I was a professional pastor. I also hurt too many people.

That hurt arose not merely from my sexual infidelities but also from my willingness to not see individuals when the “Ministry” was at stake. It came from my innate use of God as a carrot or as a stick to get people to move in the direction I thought they needed to go – either for their own good or the good of the greater church.

That is the rub for me. I got people to move and in doing so built some lasting Christian communities that still do some really good things. Many of my former students are doing great things. I’ve got spiritual grandkids I’ve never met. I am so grateful that god used me. But he uses everyone, whether they want to be used or not. Too often the work of ministry I threw myself into was my work rather than God’s. I played the role of the Holy Spirit. He was involved. He had to be for the ministry to continue so long after I left, but I was too involved. I tried, unintentionally to usurp his job description. The last years have taught me that I need to quit applying for the job of God – the position has been filled.

Great pastors don’t have “God complexes”. They surrender their right to care what people think about them and choose to care what God thinks about people. They do the next right thing even if it is hard. Not burying their heads in the sand. They allow themselves to be human, surrendering to God their faults as well as their gifts for His service. Great pastors accept all of life as a gift from God and yet never cease to work to create His Kingdom in the space they inhabit. Great pastors call people into relationship with God and other human beings so that together they can live out what it means to be reconciled. Great pastors do not limit themselves to the congregation that pays or employs them. They are gifted as a pastor and so they pastor everywhere they go. The city is their parish; the citizens of their city their parishioners.

But most of all, great pastors realize that they aren’t really that great and they are OK with that. They always point people to God as the architect of greatness and the giver of great gifts. They are honest and fight against natural tendencies to manipulate people and circumstances. Great pastors are gifted communicators of grace, truth, joy, peace, and love; they help people hear God speak in meaningful ways, and then encourage them to act on what they hear. Great pastors don’t give a damn about position but will fight for their brothers and sisters.

Great churches are places where God is clearly present in the lives of the people who gather in his name. It is clear that God is present because those same people are being changed daily by his presence – sometimes slowly sometimes quickly but always they are being transformed into His image. Great churches exude love and grace; speaking truth and offering peace. They allow people to be people complete with foibles and blatant sin. Great churches depend upon the Holy Spirit to change the syntality of the congregation into the personality of the Trinity, revealed by Him to them over the course of their “long obedience in the same direction.” (Thanks to Eugene Peterson) great churches are not measured by size or even numeric growth, but rather by transformed lives, and cultures. They are measured by their impact in the lives of not merely those that call the congregation their home but also those who observe it from the outside.

Undoubtedly more could and should be said in answer to these questions. Perhaps you might have something to add and together we can paint a more complete picture…

Comments

[Shox Running Shoes]

Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious; both are disappointed

[Kay Lee]

Something in your blog reminded me of the verse that says something to the effect that there was a long war between the house of David and the house of Saul and the house of David grew stronger and stronger and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. Hopefully between following the Spirit and our own ideas, this will happen in our lives and we need to encourage it in others.

[Kay Lee]

I saw a bumper sticker I really liked. It said "Dopeless hope fiend"

My main consideration for a good pastor is one where the communication goes both ways. A good communicator is limited unless there is feedback. I don't grow in a relationship without there being ongoing back and forth testing of ideas and finding out what of what we hear works and what doesn't and why not. Without a "lab" experience it becomes so much philosophy. The other part of sharing what works in your life is that people feel challenged to try it and not just "preached at" when it is presented as a testimony of what works and what is truth not as a sermon per se.

[Steve Ganz]

Your right, and we do have hope for those who are bound in sin... seems like all of us in some way, but only the most 'blatant' admit it.

[Stephen Grant]

Phil, Great comments... I agree that a pastoral team is the pattern we see in the Scriptures. However, a pastor is a pastor though. It is something one does; it is a gifting that is biblical that we can't get away from and shouldn't want to. Just because it has become a title rather than a description does not mean we should do away with it completely.

Steve, my comment about "blatant sin" is probably over stated. Someone that is living in sin and does not want to be free of it is to be cast out. St Paul is clear on that. There is another whole category of people, however, who are caught in sin and who want out but have not found a way of escape. This is the category of people of people that generally don't have a place in our congregations, and need to find a place. They are the people I was speaking of.

[Malana Ganz]

Steve,
It is humbling to think that God calls any of us to the responsibilities and character your describe - only His grace could bring anyone close to the ideal.

[Steve Ganz]

This brings up the question of what is a pastor's role. I think our problem in understanding this partially comes from using the word pastor differently than how it is used in the Bible. In the Bible, pastor translates a word which means shepherd, as in Jesus is the shepherd(read pastor)of the sheep. The church needs many pastor/teachers.

Yet we often use this word to describe a role in the church of an overseer who has responsibility for the direction of a local church and/or who is the primary feeder/teacher. I think that if we were to Biblically name this role, and I think we can, I'd call it the apostle's representative (as was Timothy in Ephesus), or an apostle. As Paul wrote, you may have 10,000 teachers but not many fathers. A "pastor" must have the heart of a father.

Great job Steve of describing something I doubt any of us can live up to but all wish we could. Just one question, what to you mean by accepting people in blatant sin?

[Phil]

I think a great church has many "pastors" who are great. If everyone strove to be that great pastor, then there may be no need for a pastor to lead a church.Iron will sharpen iron so to speak. A great pastor is one who will lay down his position without reservation, knowing God is in control of the church. A great pastor could be someone free of the anxiety of not being in the spotlight. A great pastor doesn't have to have oratory gifts and charisma. He or she just needs to be willing to follow Christ at all costs. No matter what the salary, accolades or status. A great pastor doesn't consider themselves a pastor at all.