This is the penultimate article in a series based on the book, Detours: 10 Roadblocks to the Great Commission, by Paul Seger. Real pastors were asked, “Why would a church NOT want to send missionaries from their congregation?” “Detours” explores the roadblocks these pastors have experienced and seeks to provide solutions for the church to fulfil this vital role in the Great Commission.
5-1/2 – Minute Read
Training leaders requires letting others do ministry with the realisation that they may not do it as well as you could (at least at first.) You must relinquish your pulpit occasionally to train preachers, but you may feel that could be a bit of a risk – especially at first. The pastor may ruminate on what might go wrong – what if nerves overcome the protégé; what if there are a lot of visitors that week; what if it isn’t coherent or only lasts 10 minutes?
This kind of scenario drives perfectionists crazy. As you can imagine, perfectionists have challenges in releasing ministry to others. A fine line exists between doing things with excellence and “doing them with perfectionism.” That’s called out in quotes for a reason – we obviously highly value ministry and are committed to doing the best we can, and we can do well! However, we can’t be perfect. No matter how good you are, you are not perfect. Perfectionism shackles you to unrealistic expectations and hinders leadership training.
DIDN’T JESUS SAY TO “BE PERFECT?”
Your response might be that Jesus said, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). It is clear from scripture that we cannot attain sinless perfection in this lifetime, so the word here for perfect can also mean genuine, complete, mature in your behaviour. We are to advance in our Christ-likeness, but we can never be without sin. A poor sermon is not a sin. Undeveloped skills are not a sin issue but a matter of development and learning.
This drives proud people crazy. Let’s go ahead and admit it. If we give our pulpit over to someone and he does a poor job, we might be embarrassed. We don’t want people thinking badly about us or our church. And dear pastor, with love, let me tell you that’s pride. Pride is thinking more of ourselves than we should, so why not admit from the beginning that your church services are not perfect? No one expects us to be perfect, so why act like we are? The more attractive trait is “genuine.” People want to see that we’re real – especially younger generations – but more about that in a different post. We should not fear the disapproval of others and should not be driven by feelings of insecurity.
INVERSE THINKING
Dave Brown, a Biblical Ministries missionary to Africa, often says: “Pastors use leaders to build the church, but missionaries use the church to build leaders.” It should not only be the missionaries operating that way. Pastors should also be using their church to build leaders. The congregation needs to understand that this is part of their ministry, to sit through someone’s first sermon. To show grace, give encouragement and love. And you, seasoned pastor, were once there, too. A congregation let you preach your first message, and you are likely embarrassed or will laugh to recall how bad it was! Now it’s your turn to return the favour.
In my book Senders, I wrote the following:
Local churches are like paper cups. They are designed by God to contain ministry, but they are disposable. The universal church is permanent. Local churches are not. I am totally committed to the centrality of the local church. I’ve spent my entire ministry focused on establishing local churches, so I am not questioning the importance of churches. But the reality is that local churches are temporary—especially buildings. They may last six months or sixty years, but sooner or later, they will cease to exist.
Here is the big idea: The local church is not the end goal—disciples are. New leaders are. Local churches are not eternal—people are. A church is not an institution or a building; it’s a group of Christians. God intended the Christian life to take place within the context of local churches. Churches provide a forum for growth and ministry. So it is in that sense that a local church is a paper cup – meant to be a temporary container for ministry.
If we consider a local church more of a porcelain cup, we may tend to be “corporate” and too institutional. We would try to build an empire instead of building people. The Great Commission is to make disciples. While planting churches is one central focal point of missions activity, making disciples is the ultimate goal.
PASTORS AND MISSIONARIES
There is a difference between the goals and job descriptions of missionaries and pastors—a big difference. This significant variance is not related to getting on an aeroplane. Missionaries are not just pastors who move to another country. For example, the goal of the missionary is not to shepherd a flock but to establish flocks” (Seger, Senders, 2016).
The pastor should have a missionary mindset. Understandably, you may not wish to surrender your Sunday morning pulpit to someone who has never preached before, but there are many opportunities to train potential preachers in other ways. You might consider coaching people in the context of a Sunday school, small group Bible studies, other church meetings, nursing homes, or rescue mission services. To make those opportunities productive, the pastor needs to be there to listen and then take the time after the event to debrief and coach.
POSSESSIVENESS AND PATIENCE
There are two more roadblocks to training leaders related to perfectionism. One is possessiveness, and the other is patience. We love ministering so much that we don’t want to let go, and it takes longer to train someone else than to do it yourself. A father can wash his car in half the time that it takes to train his two young boys to wash the car. The job will take longer for the boys to do, but they need to start somewhere to learn.
Few pastors would claim that the church is theirs. Theologically, we all admit that the church belongs to Christ since He is the head of the church. That’s what we say, but could it be that we have held back ownership of a particular local church? That possessiveness will keep us from handing over ministry to others who may not do it as well (again, at first.) To our credit, we love ministry. We really like what we’re doing. We don’t really want to give up our opportunity to preach, teach and pastor. But the reality is that there is plenty of opportunity to go around. There is job security in the gospel ministry since there will always be a need. We’ll never run out of lost and broken people to reach and heal.
It does take patience to train others to minister. We can prepare a message faster if we don’t have someone looking over our shoulder asking questions. We could make that hospital visit and be home if we didn’t have to coordinate schedules with a protégé. Women who minister can prepare for and teach a ladies’ Bible study on their own time without having to ensure their protégé is available for a prep session. It takes time first to teach, then train, and then debrief with someone as they learn the how-to of serving. Let’s admit it: we often just don’t have the patience to watch a novice stumble his or her way through the learning process.
THE SOLUTION IS LOVE
1 Corinthians 13:4 puts it simply this way: Love is patient. The antidote to my lack of patience is love. The determination to put others first is at the very heart of love and the solution to impatience. Loving others will pull us away from our perfectionism.
Next week, we’ll look at the last reason pastors gave as a barrier to becoming a sending church – self-focus. It’s in the same vein as perfectionism. If you are a pastor or church leader seeking to become a sending church, let us come alongside you and help. Our heart is to serve the local church and assist in mobilising the next generation of missionaries and leaders. Contact us to learn how we can partner together for the cause of the Great Commission.
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