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When a church moves from a worship attendance of less
than fifty into the 50 to 150 range, a different style of pastoral leadership
is required. Perhaps another way to
approach this is that if a church wants to transition to this next level of participation,
the pastor must be able to fulfill a different type of role. This may well be one of those “chicken and
egg” quandaries. Which comes first?
One may object to “the pastor-centered church” as the
descriptor for this size congregation, but the fact is that the pastor is the
nexus—the coordinator, the linchpin, the network node—through which everything
flows. This is not an ego thing on the part of the pastor, but something that
the members expect. They want someone
who will be the administrator of a growing church.
Although the pastor continues to perform the “priestly
functions” of office (marrying, baptizing, and burying), he or she is expected
to be more proficient in communicating the Word of God. As a preacher, the pastor in this size
congregation embodies the caring ministry of the church, aware of the needs and
crises that take place and being the calm at the eye of the storm. In teaching, the pastor is expected to apply
the Bible to issues faced by the congregants—family issues, moral choices, and
values. In this function, the pastor
links orthodoxy and orthopraxy—right believing and right acting—in the life of
the church.
This type of congregation calls upon the pastor to lead
through personal relationships and by being the one who delegates
responsibilities, provides support in their execution, and recognizes
achievements of members. The pastor is
the first among committee leaders who involves, encourages, empowers, mentors,
and praises the “worker bees” in the church. In addition, the pastor is often the primary
Christian educator in the church, so he or she trains and coaches those who
teach in most of the age groups.
The pastor in this congregation uses all of his or her relationship
and emotional intelligence skills, but the greatest challenge here is time
management. Being the administrator does
not mean that the pastor has to perform every task or even be present at every
meeting, and this requires some wise choices about use of professional and
personal time. Failure to do so can lead
to burn-out, poor health, and marital issues.
In this stage of church development, the pastor is the
generalist, the “jack of all trades,” who is helping the members lay the foundation
for both personal and organizational growth.
Some pastors function best at this level and are happy to continue in
this role. Others realize that they are
willing to do this for awhile but they long for the day that the church will
transition to a new model or the day when they accept the call to different
type of church!
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