The Pastor’s Role: Assumed Until Proven Clear

American actor Henry Winkler (a.k.a. the Fonz) once said that assumptions are the termites of relationships. After several years of participating in and studying church leadership, I’ve become particularly concerned about the expectations that exist between senior pastors, church boards, and congregations. In these relationships, much conflict appears to be created by the assumptions each respective party carries about what a pastor is to be and do.

For example, Greg Ogden (1998) contrasts two paradigms about the role of the pastor in today’s church culture:

A. Older Traditional Paradigm:

1. Teachers of Doctrinal Tradition: Pastors chose to be ordained into a denomination based upon its distinctive theological heritage. Pastors kept those distinctives alive through teaching and preaching. People identified with their tradition and practiced denominational loyalty.
2. Caregivers: Pastors were to be present in people’s lives in times of crisis. Real ministry did not occur until the pastor was present.
3. Public symbols of the sacred: The role of the clergy is to be strong, central, and unquestioned. It is a high-status role, carrying authority within a hierarchical model.
4. Presiders over rites of passage: Pastors presided over rites of passage that marked people’s incorporation into the tradition of which they were a part. They baptized, confirmed, married, and buried.

B. Newer Emerging Paradigm:

1. The Pastor as visionary leader: Pastors are needed who can 1) cast vision, 2) rally God’s people around a shared mission, 3) clarify and institute ministry values, and 4) establish boundaries that distinguish between what’s “on purpose” and what’s not.
2. The Pastor as organizational engineer: Emphasizes skills in team building and facilitating group learning cultures.
3. The Pastor as leader of change: Pastors find themselves letting go of the traditional paradigm with one hand while reaching for the emerging paradigm with the other. Leading the process of leading change will be at the heart of the pastoral profile for years to come.
4. The Pastor as missiologist: Entails thinking as a translating theologian, a cultural anthropologist, and ministry entrepreneur and partnership-maker.
5. The Pastor as leadership developer: One of the highest priorities of pastors under the traditional model was to respond to the neediest people in their congregations. However, this leaves little time for equipping people to do the work of the ministry (c.f. Eph. 4:11).

These paradigms complement Roy W. Oswald’s (1991) description of effective ministry according to church size. He points out that difficulty arises when a church’s size transitions from what he calls Pastoral (50 to 150 active members) to Program (150 – 350 active members) or vice versa. One challenge in this situation, as Oswald states, is that “congregations may be Program size yet still require their clergy to attend to all the [Pastoral] activities. This is a perfect prescription for burnout.”

Some key questions at this point, such as: “How much can one pastor do?”, or “Which elements of these paradigms are critical for us at this time?”, and perhaps most importantly, “What are everyone’s expectations of the pastor here?” Some robust dialogue between pastors, boards, and congregations must arise around these issues.

In his book Crucial Conversations (2002), Kerry Patterson defines these kinds of talks as discussions where 1) stakes are high, 2) opinions vary, and 3) emotions run strong. He points out that the free flow of relevant information is central to the success of every crucial conversation.

With that in mind, any church leadership team will benefit from sitting down together and discussing Ogden’s paradigms and Oswald’s article. This will set the stage for a frank conversation about each other’s assumptions and expectations. The outcome may be extremely significant and alter the values, ideas, dreams and mission of a local congregation.

References:

Ogden, Greg, “Pastoring Between the Paradigms.” The Pastor’s Update, audio series from Fuller Theological Seminary, Tape # 7021, Vol. 82, 1998.

Oswald, Roy M. “How to Minister Effectively in Family, Pastoral, Program, and Corporate Sized Churches.” The Alban Institute. Originally published in Action Information 17, no. 2, March/April 1991, pp. 1–7 and no. 3, May/June 1991, pp. 5–7. http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=1214, accessed October 20, 2007.

Patterson, Kerry, et al. Crucial Conversations. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 2002.