in your narrative of the unhealthy elements of your church the one thing that
stood out most was your local church inability to allow the pastor functioning in
the role God intended. c The reason I took this stance is throughout your
narrative you indicated that the congregation wanted to be more involved in the
decision and delegation of the task from the pastor, however before the pastor
can delegate task he must first establish the appropriate culture for the church. c
As scripture tells the believer to “each is given spiritual gifts some apostles,
some prophets, evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping
of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”
(Ephesians 4:11-12, NKJV). Before he can delegate any authority he must
explain and teach the congregation in the direction God has purposed him for in
the church. c I think your church would be able to grow in discipleship by
following a similar pattern that Rick Warren references in his book “A Purpose
Driven Church”, when he talks about the leader establishing the vision and then
developing a congregation to believes in his vision and when everyone buys
into the vision of the pastor the church is able to grow and leaders can be
trusted with task because everyone is operating with the focus being on a
singular vision for the ministry, rather it is growth with young congregants or
unbelievers, most make a plan establish the vision and allow the leader to lead.
I can understand the fact that the seniors were a bit resistant to change, that is
one reason that my brother moved from his first church, many of the seniors
were unsure of adding the singles and college age groups to the church, there
was a lot of old money being given to the church, specifically when the older
congregants passed. Having to teach them is it just your preference or is it
biblical in what they are resisting c may be something that would need to be
taught. Even the new pastor who has been used to doing everything, I can see
if they are coming from a smaller church and not used to having people to
delegate to or work together with to provide the ministry, we need to remember
that Paul taught to the whole church not just those in church leadership, that
the whole church was responsible for the teaching and responsibility of what
they have heard.[1] You stated that your local church is “not perfect but has an
increasingly positive, healthy status.” I think that no church is perfectly healthy
as they are led by broken people and I would hope that all churches would
want to be in a healthy status, and many are not and do not know it, so they
need to really look at themselves and see where they need to work on first as
it is not a onetime fix, but a constant working just as our relationship with Christ
is.
[1] Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 3rd ed. (Wheaton: Crossway,
2013), 235.
References:
Dever, Mark “Nine Marks of a Healthy Church”, Washington, DC, Crossway,
2013
Warren, Rick, “The Purpose Driven Church: Growth without compromising your
message and mission”, Grands Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 1995
