Expectation vs. Reality of Being a Pastor
When I first started out as a pastor, I imagined preaching engaging messages and leading Bible studies that saw people bringing their friends to join us.
The reality? Just because I did it didn’t mean they’d come.
I thought that being a pastor meant it was possible to spend time on an engaging, faithful message, while leading all the Bible studies and other ministries of the church, visiting the shut-ins and those in the hospital.
But it really meant that I was tempted to cheat my family out of time with me for the sake of the church.
In order for people to be engaged in their daily faith, I needed to consistently invite others to lead and serve with me, model the way of following Jesus daily, and equip and empower others to lead teams and ministries alongside me.
>> If you’re anything like me, you’re stuck with the realization that what you imagined being a pastor would look like looks NOTHING like actually being a pastor right now.<<
If the majority of your days are spent:
- Answering emails
- Leading meetings
- Answering more emails
- Wearing 8 different hats,
- …answering more emails
you’re left feeling constantly behind, exhausted, overwhelmed, and like nobody will do anything unless you do.
Friend, I want to remind you of your role as a pastor leader, which can be summed up as: The process of using pastoral influence within a congregation to equip and train Jesus followers to love God with all heart, soul, and mind, to love others as well as we love ourselves, and to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, instructing them in the practice of all Jesus commanded.
To fulfill this calling is impossible when not only feeling overwhelmed and exhausted all the time, but also when everything falls on our shoulders as the pastor.
>>The best thing I did to get out from under the overwhelm of doing everything myself was to start relying more on teams to lead ministries than on myself.<<
Let’s be honest, Jesus didn’t do everything Himself. In fact, THE way He equipped and empowered the disciples for His return to heaven was modeling the way for them, inviting them to do ministry with Him, watching them do it, and ultimately empowering them do it trusting the power of the Holy Spirit in them to lead and guide them.
If the only teams you have in your congregation are your board and your altar guild, let me encourage you to get creative about equipping and empowering your congregation through more teams. In fact, every ministry should have a team serving it and giving oversight to it. For your congregation, that might mean you have teams for children, youth, greeting, ushering, prayer, care, teaching, preaching, parking, coffee, hospitality, etc.
Leading through teams gives people in the pews the opportunity to serve together, pray with and for others, lead devotionals, consider their theology and how it relates to different ministries, pay more attention to what God is up to, train and equip others, listen to each other and neighbors better, and share in the responsibility of the life of the church.
If Jesus didn’t do it all Himself, then why are we? It’s not only an unbiblical model, it’s unsustainable and ineffective for equipping and training Jesus followers to love God, love others, and to train others to do the same.
If you still have a heart to see people engaged in their daily faith, paying attention to what God is up to and where God is going, and to see lives and communities transformed by the power and love of Christ, then you need to have teams leading each area of ministry in your congregation. We can’t expect people to follow the ways and practices of Jesus in their daily lives if we never give them a chance to do so within the Body of Christ.