This is the seventh 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.
7-1/2 – Minute Read
PASTORS: TRAIN LEADERS, DON’T JUST DO MINISTRY
Pastors are notoriously overworked, often sacrificing time off–whether that’s just a day or even a vacation–to meet their congregation’s needs. Adding “training leaders” to the job description and dedicating 20 more hours a week to it likely sounds impossible to you. And yet, that’s exactly what I’m going to propose – although it won’t take an additional 20 hours. Please hear me out…
SUBSTITUTION, NOT ADDITION
The solution is not to work more hours. Time is not elastic, so part of the answer is “instead of” rather than “in addition to.” The answer is to shift priorities and likely adjust the pastor’s job description.
Ephesians 4:11-12 is one of the key passages that defines the job description of a pastor:
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
According to this passage, the primary role of those in church leadership is to train others to do ministry. Regardless of how you define apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds/teachers, they are all leadership positions, and leaders should develop others to do what they do.
The word equip has the idea of training. This confronts our current model of pastoral ministry. God gives leaders to local churches to make sure that believers are furnished, sufficient and qualified to do ministry. The result is that the congregation gains skills based on knowledge– not simply knowledge. There is something out of kilter when a pastor has been at a church for a decade, and men and women cannot run a basic home Bible study (or he wouldn’t trust them to do so.)
DO AND TRAIN
Let’s look at evangelism as an example. It seems logical to say that the job of an evangelist is to do evangelism. After all, that’s the gift. It seems to come easy to the evangelist, so we would assume those in this role would be out there doing evangelism 60 hours a week. But that’s not what the text says. This is the only place in scripture that gives the ministry description of an evangelist, and clearly, his role is to equip saints to do the work of the ministry. In other words, train others to do evangelism. Every believer should be engaged in the Great Commission, so we need evangelists to train and motivate everyone to get involved.
In the same way, a pastor’s role is to train others to do what he is good at. The pastor may be gifted in teaching, counselling, showing mercy, encouraging, visiting the sick and comforting the bereaved. He should be training others to do those things so that he doesn’t have to do all of it by himself. His job description is to do ministry AND to train others to do that same type of ministry.
THE POWER OF MULTIPLICATION
One of the reasons pastors work so hard is that they have not trained others to do ministry. If pastors don’t train leaders, they end up carrying the entire burden themselves. Jesus said that everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher (Luke 6:40). When pastors equip others, ministry expands exponentially. Without leadership development, churches stagnate.
Leaders are doers, and they tend to get things done. So, if things aren’t happening in your church, perhaps it means you need more leaders. If you don’t have leaders, and you’ve been in your present ministry role for a year, that’s understandable. However, if you’ve been in your present ministry for ten years and there aren’t enough leaders, the blame likely lies with you as the primary leader. The role of the pastor and church leadership is to train leaders.
THE OUTCOMES OF EQUIPPING CHURCH LEADERS
There are some outstanding outcomes for the pastor who focuses on training others to minister. Ephesians 4:11-12 gives the job description, and the following verses outline what will happen when leaders train others.
- Saints will be equipped to do ministry (4:12).
- Saints will serve (4:12).
- Churches will be built (4:12).
- Churches will be unified (4:13).
- Saints will know God (4:13).
- Saints become mature (4:13).
- Saints know scripture (4:14).
- Saints are loving (4:15).
- Churches are fully functional (4:16).
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could describe your church with those nine characteristics? Who would not want a church that looks like that? The pathway for this to happen is through developing others to do the work of ministry.
LEADERS TRAIN LEADERS
One of the keys to time management is to do what only you can do. If someone else can do it, then delegate. If that maxim is true, then training leaders is something that only leaders can do. Followers can’t train leaders; only leaders can train leaders. Therefore, leadership training cannot be handed off to others. The pastor and other church leaders must commit to mentoring the next generation. Seminaries commonly train pastors to spend 25-30 hours preparing Sunday sermons. Can a pastor still fulfil the responsibilities of training leaders (Ephesians 4:11-12) if most of his time is spent preparing sermons? It isn’t very likely. This is why training leaders will require rewriting your job description.
NEVER WORK ALONE
Another key to leveraging your time is never to work alone. Training leaders doesn’t require an extra 20 hours—it requires including others in what you’re already doing. Bring someone along for sermon prep, hospital visits, or counselling sessions. It will take a little bit longer since there will need to be discussion and debriefing, but the beauty is this hands-on approach builds capable leaders while you continue your work.
FIX THE LEAKING CALENDAR
Another concept a pastor should consider is improving his own personal time management. Not many of us can claim to have this facet of our life entirely under control, and chances are you have many more hours available than you think.
Part of the reason for this is that we tend not to value our time like we should. Attorneys keep track of their billable hours in minute-by-minute increments. Even though you, as a Pastor, are not paid by the hour, what if you placed a value of R10,000 an hour on your time? Would it make a difference in how you spent the next few minutes?
One of the most important biblical concepts to understand for time management is the difference between Chronos and Kairos. In my book Chief, I write at length about this topic:
There are two Greek words for time. Chronos is the word that refers to minutes, hours, and days. It is the normal word we use for time. Kairos is something different. It carries the idea of capitalizing on an opportunity. Time management in Western cultures tends to focus on chronos. They are concerned with how to put more minutes in the day—or at least do more in the minutes available. While that may be important, good time management is concerned with both chronos and kairos. (Seger, Chief, 2013)
Scripture uses both of those words, sometimes in the same sentence. For instance, Jesus said: It is not for you to know times [chronos] or seasons [kairos] that the Father has fixed by his own authority (Acts 1:7).
Chronos is our default approach to time management. Since most of us understand scheduling minutes and hours, we should concentrate more on the kairos. Investors are balancing these two concepts all the time. It takes an expert to figure out when is a good time to get in and when to get out of the market. That is kairos. It is looking for those excellent opportunities that will produce giant returns.
Further, in my book Chief, I write:
There is a story in the Bible about anti-Semitism. The entire nation of Israel was threatened with extermination. Esther happened to be in the right place at the right time. She had access to the king to plead the case for preserving her nation. Her cousin Mordecai encouraged her to be bold. He framed the context of her situation by pointing out that perhaps she was in this position for such a time as this (Esther 4:14). That was kairos. She had that golden opportunity that would never present itself again. She could either take advantage of it or lose it forever. (Seger, Chief, 2013)
CHRONOS AND KAIROS
Training leaders requires both kinds of time. It requires setting out a calendar and schedule to meet with potential leaders to train. It’s grinding out a schedule relentlessly, day after day and week after week, but it also requires sensitivity to kairostime. There will be teachable moments. People who were not ready last year may now be available to be trained. There are phases in a person’s life when God is working in his heart to be more receptive to the idea of ministry leadership. Whereas you could have talked to him last year about being a leader, and he would not have been interested, things have changed in his life, and now he’s ready. It takes a pastor aware of kairos to capitalize on the current openness of potential leaders.
Being sensitive to kairos means that you will move aside some of the things on your schedule. While we need to plan a calendar, there are times when those plans should be set on a shelf to take advantage of a golden opportunity. Living by chronos with a well-organized schedule means we are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities when they come our way.
THE TRUE ISSUE: DESIRE, NOT TIME
We may use lack of time as a reason for not training leaders, but the reality is we have not made it a priority. Major sending churches seem to have the common denominator that the pastor wants it to happen. The church may not have systems to make it happen, but it happens because it is a heart desire of the pastor or church leaders. Even though time management is important, it’s not the main issue. Desire is.
J.D. Greear says it well:
What your organization does best grows out of what it loves most. To send effectively, we must love the glory of God and the lost more than we love anything else. Then sending comes naturally.
Our problem is not that we haven’t found the right program that enables us to reach the world. Our problem is that we don’t yearn to see God’s glory spread over the earth enough to build whatever ships are required to reach people for Christ and see his glory awakened in their heart (Greear, Gaining by Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches That Send, 2015).
Pastors, don’t just work harder—work smarter. Train leaders, and watch your church grow stronger than ever. We can help! Mentoring for ministry is our free workshop that teaches church leaders advanced discipleship methods for the local church. We also explore the biblical basis for leadership and discuss leadership styles and how to use them effectively. Contact us to schedule your workshop!
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