Kevin DeYoung talks about a pastor’s responsibilities and possible conflicts with writing books and articles. Among other good thoughts, he says, “I’m glad I read Martyn Lloyd-Jones before I ever wrote a book because I can hear the Doctor in the back of my head saying, ‘The pastor is first of all a preacher and not a writer.’ There is nothing wrong with being a writer first, but that’s simply not the calling of a pastor.”
He notes what a wonderful privilege it is for people to read anything you’ve written, which is a good reason for a writer to get over himself.
On a related note, Miles Mullin writes about contemporary tribalism among evangelicals. “This is the troubling reality of the personality-based leadership that encompasses much of American evangelicalism. Often, charisma and dynamic communication skills trump character and integrity as popular appeal wins the day,” he observes. Like fans of sports teams who argue over purely subjective judgements, fans of preachers and writers defend their leaders against any accusation, sometimes even against obvious sins.
The mention of Personality Based ministries brings to mind the issue of Pastoral Tenure – How long should a congregation retain a pastor, or a pastor expect to stay at the same congregation.
I see four common approaches among the churches I’ve studied.
A. Pastor for Life.
— Endorsed by Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Church.
B. Regular Rearrangement.
— The Methodist Church has historically re-assigned their pastors to different parishes every three to five years in order to build ministry upon Doctrine and Practice rather than personality. Reminds me of the Army’s practice of transferring career officers to new postings every two years or so.
C. Limited Contract
— A/G churches often give pastors a limited duration contract of one to three years. The Congregation must vote to retain him after that time.
D. Open Ended Call
— This is the most common practice in my denomination.
I’ve come to see my calling as a lifetime serving The Church with seasonal calls to specific congregations.
What have others learned about this?
I suppose I’ve always thought of pastors having an open-ended call. My own senior pastor has been with our church for 25 years. He will retire from here at some point, and I hope the congregation doesn’t change because we have someone new.
I don’t understand viewing a church as a consumer, even though I may think that way a little myself. Churches are unique parts of a larger community. As such, we all must chip in to worship and love, not ask what’s in it for ourselves.