Mission Impossible
If you’re as old as I am then you will know there was a television series called “Mission Impossible” before there were movies by that same name. If you’re old enough to know that, you’ll also remember the unforgettable beginning of each episode of “Mission Impossible.” The scene began with a picture of a burning fuse underscored by intense, driving music. The agent would place a small cassette tape in a player and the mission would be outlined. The agents would look through the mission information delivered in a manila envelope. Once the tape had been played, the tape would then self-destruct in a hissing puff of smoke. The agents would then have to decide to take the mission. They always did. The show would have been embarrassingly short if the agent had turned down the mission.
For the past few years, I’ve been working with a lot of pastors. Inevitably, we come to a point where the pastor is having to make some hard decisions about how they spend their time. The conversation will be a painful shuffling of priorities between what the pastor as a person needs and feels called to do, what the family needs from the pastor and the varied and seemingly countless demands and expectations of the church members.
How does a pastor effectively balance all of these demands? To put it bluntly, there are few people who have the abilities and talents needed to do all of these things well. It’s not unusual for a pastor to be totally responsible for the following:
All Biblical teaching and preaching. This would include the Sunday morning sermon and at least one other Bible study during the week.
Managing staff and volunteers.
Staffing of all church programs.
Managing the church facilities.
Managing church finances. This would include successfully raising the funds.
Respond to the pastoral care needs of the congregation. This would include hospital visitations, funerals, follow up grief care, counseling and anything else that comes up.
Community involvement.
Political awareness to navigate the culture wars – which is different in every community.
I could go on, but you get my point.
This got me thinking. What would happen if the call to a local church was delivered the same way the missions were delivered in Mission Impossible? What if a flash drive with all of the demands and expectations of the church and a manila folder full of the job’s details were delivered to a particular candidate inquiring if they “would choose to accept the mission?”
Would anyone accept the mission? Do we need to seriously ask ourselves if we have made the role of pastor too difficult for anyone to do? Is the rash of failures in churches across America a result of churches setting their pastors up for failure?
In the early church, the apostles faced a similar problem. In Acts 6, the Gentile widows weren’t being cared for and the disciples responded to the issue by establishing the office and role of deacon. The deacons would be responsible for the food distribution to those in need within the congregation. The apostles would be responsible for the study of Scripture and prayer.
Since the first century, there’s been a tug of war between the clergy and laity between who leads the church and how the church is to be led and then, who does the work of the church.
The clergy won. Now, most clergy are now regretting having gotten what they had wished for.
According to those who follow this way of thinking, pastors are professionals who are contracted to do the work of the church. Whenever ministry is demanded, the church responds by saying we have hired someone to do that. On the other hand, if the membership should try to do any ministry, they are reminded there are people – the ministers – who are professionally trained to handle such needs.
When we study both the ministries of Jesus and Paul, we notice a very recognizable pattern. Jesus and Paul focused most of their energies on three things: preaching and teaching, praying, and developing leaders. Neither Jesus nor Paul were solo practitioners. Both of them made a point to extend their ministries through the work of others. Jesus poured Himself into His disciples. Paul did the same with Timothy and Titus.
In Ephesians, Paul is explicit in this teaching. Pastors are gifted to train the congregation in the works of the ministry. Pastors are called to expand the ministries of the church by identifying and training leaders who will extend the ministry of the church deeper into the surrounding communities. Successful pastors shouldn’t be measured by how many people attend their worship services, but by how many leaders leave the church to join Christ in His redemptive work in the world.
Part of everyone’s salvation experience is the call to join Christ in His work. Each of us have been gifted and designed to be part of Christ’s healing of our world. Some are apostles, some are prophets, some are evangelists – everyone is something. Everyone has a purpose. Everyone is needed in the work.
The great privilege of a pastor is seeing someone come to Christ and then, become their full selves in their saving relationship with Christ. The times I’ve been proudest as a pastor is when I watched someone do something they didn’t believe they could do and then, watching the Spirit touch their lives so their ministry is done in such a way that everyone who sees it praises God because only through God could something like that be done.
The current professionalization of ministry isn’t sustainable. The work of the church has to be multiplied through every follower of Christ. We often call the church the family of God. The future of the church rests in ministry once again becoming a family affair.
This essay was first posted in Scot McKnight’s newsletter.
