It is not unfair to say corporate culture has infiltrated how Pastors see the church. In previous blogs I have talked about pastors seeing themselves as CEOs rather than shepherds. Today I want to talk about another symptom of the corporate culture. Pastor, you are not a boss, you are a Pastor.
Recently I have had the opportunity to interact with and see pastors in their own elements. I have enjoyed watching Average Pastors operate in their own churches. I have also had the opportunity to talk to and visit pastors of larger churches. But most importantly, I have the opportunity to talk to the staff in both contexts. My conversations with both have revealed that in larger church contexts, staff pastors are often seen as employees. That is not surprising considering that most staff in larger context are full time and are paid to perform duties. But this is not the case in the Average Church. Most staff are part time at best. At my church, I was able to pay a small monthly amount to our staff. Because I wasn’t paying them, I saw them differently. I saw them as servants, not employees.
Staff pastors are some of the unsung heroes of the Average Church. They volunteer to serve because they love the church and want to be useful to God’s kingdom. There are little rewards with these jobs. Since they are not full time they have to give of what is left from working their regular jobs. They don’t have time to sit around and plan ministry like full time staff. Even if you can pay them some each week, they are still mostly operating as volunteer ministers.
So as an Average Pastor, how you lead your staff is important. How you see them and what you expect of them matters. If you have a full time staff, it is natural to see yourself as a boss who has employees. In this context you have to make judgments about performance, value and production. You have to make sure your staff justifies their salaries. But even in this context you have to admit that is a hard thing to do when it comes to ministry. How do you judge value in ministry? Salvations? Events? Attendance? Its just not the same as the corporate world.
In the Average Church, that sort of evaluation is simply not appropriate. These men and women are giving what is extra in their lives to the church. They have limited time, energy and resources to give to that ministry. If you treat them like an employee, you will lose them. If you treat them as people who are there to do things for you, you will lose them. If you see them as problems to be fixed, you will lose them. In short, in an Average Church, a Pastor is not a Boss. He is a partner, a leader and a mentor. But not a boss.
I know that in the early years I fell into this trap with my staff. I came from a church with a full time staff. I treated my staff as employees who I expected to produce. I saw myself as a Boss who evaluated their production. I even gave yearly performance reviews (Are you kidding me? I can’t believe I did that!). Often saw my staff as employees who were there to do what I want. They ‘worked’ for me and I felt justified in trying to make them do what I wanted.
What a foolish mistake. These people give of themselves, not for me, but for Christ and his church. They are there to serve God, not my agenda. Once I figured that out, I became their pastor who helped them find their calling rather than a Boss whom they worked for. I got more joy out of seeing what they wanted to accomplish than seeing them execute what I wanted to accomplish. That is a Pastor. A Pastor shapes people and helps them become something for God. A Boss only looks over the shoulder of those who work for them to make sure they are doing what they are told. Don’t be a Boss, be a Pastor.
Your staff are a gift from God. Cherish them. Listen to them. Help them achieve their goals rather than using them to achieve yours. Build them up by investing in them rather than tearing them down when they don’t measure up. Be a Pastor, not a Boss.
The Average Pastor 