New Testament Commentary

As an occupation group, pastors have alarmingly high rates of depression, obesity, anxiety-related health problems, divorce, and loneliness. And church congregations must accept the lion’s share of the blame. The solution is for God’s people to renew their commitment to the Bible, to embrace Jesus’ original intent for the role of the pastor (an office He gifted to the church), to grow spiritually, and to affirm their pastor with love, encouragement, and support.

What Healthy Churches Expect of Their Pastor

What is the role of a pastor? What are a pastor’s priorities? How should a pastor spend his time each week? These questions came to my mind as I visited Saddleback Church in California on a recent Sunday evening, where I experienced Pastor Rick Warren challenging his congregation to plant churches in twelve international cities as part of an audacious effort in 2012 to reach over 3,500 people groups that are yet without a Bible-believing church proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ.

As I looked around the crowd of people gathered that Sunday evening at Saddleback’s campus, I could tell that Saddleback is not an internally-focused church. There wasn’t a sense of “Hey, what about me?” I got the impression that all those with complaints about Rick Warren not visiting them enough or being too focused on the outside world as opposed to his own congregation had long since departed. The members of Saddleback Church recognize the purpose of the church and the biblical responsibility of their pastor. Other churches could learn a lot from them.

That Sunday morning, I attended Grace Community Church and heard a wonderful message on the Holy Spirit from John MacArthur. I reflected on how Grace Community has also impacted tens of thousands, dare I say more, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And Grace Community has helped numerous Christians grow in their faith and spiritual walk.

That Sunday, after experiencing those two dynamic and wonderful churches, a truth became crystal clear. Healthy churches are God-centered, mission-minded, and outward-focused. They want their pastor to lead them, teach them, and pray for them. They are focused on the Great Commission. They don’t get preoccupied with whether the music is too loud, what style of music is being played, whether their pastor pays them enough attention, whether their idea or agenda is being considered by the church leadership, or any of that. They want more souls saved, more people baptized, and more people growing in Christ. And they are following the men God has put in their pulpit to lead them in that quest. They are on mission. They are making a positive difference for the Kingdom of God. And they will be rewarded accordingly in Heaven. Sadly, this is not the case with most churches today.

What Most Congregations Expect From Their Pastors

Most churches have a small vision, complete with a narrow mindset, and are full of self-centered people. And nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to what typical church congregations in America want and expect from their pastor.

In a recent conversation I had with a fellow pastor, one much older and more experienced than me and a man of God I greatly respect, we talked about what people expect from their pastor. He said that Jesus would not survive more than three weeks in the average Baptist church today as their pastor. I mentioned Paul, and he said that Paul wouldn’t even get out of the parking lot!

I believe this pastor is absolutely correct. In the post-Industrial Age 20^th century, American Christians became accustomed to the small church complete with care-giving pastors who functioned more like chaplains than pastors. Typifying Norman Rockwell images of simpler times, these chaplain-pastors regularly visited every member family, paying particular attention to the elderly, the widows, the shut-ins, and those in the hospitals and nursing homes. And this is the kind of pastor preferred by most small, tradition-oriented, congregationally-governed, evangelical churches in America today.

Don’t get me wrong. I love ministering to people. Some of the warmest and most rewarding episodes in my life are when God has graciously given me the privilege (and I most certainly count it as a privilege) to encourage a broken heart, comfort those in grief, help mend a relationship, shine some hope into a difficult situation, or lead someone to a personal decision for Jesus Christ. I do not wish to remove myself from this type of ministry. I simply want to point out that nowhere in the Bible does it say this kind of ministry is exclusive to pastors. On the contrary, the Bible teaches that pastors are to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. That means the pastor is to be one among many doing this kind of work.

Most churches today don’t look to the biblical role of a pastor. They want their pastor to be a people-pleaser. They are not interested in their pastor leading them or challenging them or rebuking them or calling them to sacrifice. They want their pastor to “take care of them.” When they have a complaint or a grievance, they expect their pastor to solve it. When they don’t like something, they expect their pastor to fix it. When they object to something the pastor is doing, they expect him to stop it. And when they hit a crisis or problem in their life, they expect their pastor to drop everything and come running to their aid. Little wonder that the average church in America has fewer than a hundred members, and that pastors, as an occupation group, have alarmingly high rates of depression, anxiety, obesity, and divorce!

While God has given me the privilege to serve two wonderful congregations, no church is perfect. And even I have experienced these kinds of expectations. Several months into my time at my current church, a lady looked at me and said: “Brian, you’re not available to people!” The very next day, I officiated a funeral, and that weekend, I conducted two weddings – in addition to performing my regular weekend duties as pastor. Obviously, I was available to some people that week, not to mention I was available enough to her to hear her accuse me of not being available. (I doubt that irony even crossed her mind). In fact, I spend a great deal of each and every week, ministering to individual church members by phone, email, cards, or in-person meetings (either at church, in the hospital, or in their home). The accusation was unfair, inaccurate, and hurtful.

While in Ohio, a dear lady in our church went into the hospital. I missed going to see her by a couple days, because I was not feeling well. I asked about her and knew that one of the deacons was following up on her, but I was pacing myself to get over a cold and didn’t want to give her my germs. She was in her eighties and quite frail. That didn’t matter. I was the pastor, and she expected a visit from me right away. And she let everyone who would listen to her know about it.

Yet I could point to several situations like the above, where some members insist on immediate attention, no matter what else may be on my plate, whether I was in or out of town, whether I was sick or not, or whether it’s my day off. I’ve had members upset with me because they find it difficult to reach me on my day off! The nerve of me to actually turn off my cell phone – on my day off – and spend time with my wife or do what the Bible says and rest. Some people, I’m convinced, don’t actually believe a pastor should have a day off, never mind that the Bible says about taking at least one day of rest. Their attitude is: “You can rest, pastor, as long as we don’t need you.”

Yet the few bad experiences I’ve had pale in comparison to what other pastors have endured. I know of several pastors personally who have had to put up with ridiculous expectations and absurd demands from their congregations. In one case, a friend of mine told me a member got upset with him one time for not visiting her in the hospital. When my pastor friend pointed out that no one told him she was even in the hospital, she responded: “Well, you’re just supposed to know!” The ridiculousness is never ending. Some of the stories I’ve heard and read have, in fact, left me speechless.

None of this is to suggest that pastors shouldn’t see to the valid needs of people in their congregation. I’m simply saying that pastors alone can’t carry that load. The pastor can only be at one place at one time. He is finite. He doesn’t have all the spiritual gifts. He is limited in what he can do and provide. What’s more, people aren’t supposed to look to their pastor for rescue or fulfillment. They are to look to Jesus and the Holy Spirit for those things.

How do we set things right? Frankly, in my flesh, I’m not very optimistic. Most churches in America are inwardly focused with a DNA that demands care-giving, people-pleasing pastors. They are not passionate about the Great Commission. They are passionate about creating an environment in their church that serves their needs and their agenda. Changing this will require courage on the part of our pastors as well as humility, grace, selflessness, and sacrifice on the part of our churchgoing Christians. And it all starts with understanding the purpose of both the church and the pastor, according to God’s Word.

The Purpose of the Church

As we explored in a previous post, the church of Jesus Christ is universal in scope, yet local in its organization. This is clear from the New Testament, where you had the church in Jerusalem, the church in Corinth, the church in Ephesus, the church in Philippi, the church in Rome, and so on. Obviously, with this article, we are talking in terms of the local church.

The purpose of the local church is to carry out the Great Commission. The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus issuing the following directive: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20, KJV)

The church’s primary mission and purpose then is to lead people to Jesus Christ, baptize those who accept Christ, and then teach them what Jesus taught. In other words, the church’s mission is to produce more disciples of Jesus Christ. In Acts, we see a picture of how, practically speaking, the early church went about accomplishing this mission. According to Luke, the early church “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42, KJV).

The Purpose of the Pastor

Since the church is given the overall and very comprehensive task of reaching the lost world with Jesus Christ and producing disciples of Christ, Jesus gave the church “gifts” to help it fulfill those tasks. Among those “gifts” is the office of pastor-teacher. According to the Apostle Paul, Jesus gave “some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12, NKJV).

In this passage from Ephesians, each particular office is preceded by the word “some” (tous de). Yet the recurring “some” (tous de) is not given before the word “teacher” (didaskalous). “Pastors” and “teachers” are instead connected by the simple conjunction “and” (kai). This indicates Paul is referring to a singular office with dual roles. The pastor is, at once, the pastor (poimen meaning “shepherd”) and teacher.

Note also that the purpose of the pastor-teacher is plainly stated. It’s not to visit the sick, call on the shut-ins, perform weddings, or take care of the needs and wants of the flock per se. According to Paul, who is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, pastors and teachers (again, same office with dual roles) are “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…” (Ephesians 4:12, NKJV).

Of course, the classic KJV inserts a comma after the word “saints,” thus implying to some that “the work of the ministry” is the purview of “pastors and teachers” and not the congregation in general. Scholars well studied in the original Greek argue that this comma was inserted by the KJV translators because it fit with their medieval understanding of the role of a pastor, not because the Greek text called for it. (See “The Importance of a Comma!” by Dr. Larry Perkins). Accordingly, most of your other English translations, including the New King James, do not have the comma, allowing the reader to more easily understand Paul’s likely meaning, which is that the pastor-teacher is to equip the saints, so that they (the saints) carry out the work of the ministry.

I would argue, however, that the insertion of the comma hardly takes congregations off the hook. If you read through Paul’s letters, one does not come away with the impression that only or primarily pastors are to do the work of ministry. On the contrary, Paul repeatedly talks about congregations doing the work of the ministry, including evangelism, caring for those in need, bearing one another’s burdens, etc. Even with the KJV comma in place, the most one can conclude is that pastors should do the work of the ministry along with all the other saints in the church!

Of course it’s wonderful when pastors do hospital visits, look in on the elderly and shut-ins, help out the disabled, perform weddings, officiate funerals, and so forth. But they should do these things in the context of teaching others to do them. It was never God’s intention for pastors alone or even pastors primarily to do the work of the ministry. It’s for every member of the church to do these things! The pastor’s primary responsibility is (in the words of the late Adrian Rogers) to “feed and lead” the flock. This is clearly seen in not only Ephesians 4, but also in the pastoral epistles (I and II Timothy and Titus) as well as I Peter 5 and Hebrews 13.

Putting Jesus Back in Charge of His Church

I realize that some pastors have abused their positions of responsibility, and have “lorded” over their flocks, something that I Peter 5 warns against. I know that, in many cases, the pastors are the main problem, not the congregation. I’m certainly aware of my limitations and the fact that I’ve made mistakes in the ministry. I don’t want anyone reading this post to take away that I’m advocating pastoral dictatorship or a pastor-centered church. On the contrary, I’m arguing for a Jesus-centered church. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd. He is our Lord.

Is the pastor in a leadership position? Yes. Jesus put him there. The pastor is, in essence, the under shepherd of Jesus’ church at the local level. A local church should be pastor-led, but it should most importantly be Jesus-focused and Jesus-driven. Jesus must be the One ultimately in charge of the church. And if the pastor fails to lead the church in the direction Jesus wants it to go, then the church needs to find another pastor.

How will a church know whether their pastor is leading them correctly? Well, the criteria for deciding whether a pastor is successful or not or in God’s will or not should have nothing to do with the opinions, tastes, or preferences of individual church members, no matter how much money they give or how long they’ve been attending! A pastor should be “graded” (for lack of a better word) on the qualifications for his office, which Paul lays out in I Timothy and Titus, and by whether or not he is leading the church effectively in carrying out the Great Commission.

When it comes to the emotional, mental, physical, and even spiritual “burdens” of the congregation, don’t push those on the pastor. He is to help with those things, but mainly in a teaching and leadership role. The Bible teaches that all the members of the church must bear the burdens of the congregation. In Galatians 6, Paul makes clear that we are to “bear one another’s burdens,” while of course bearing our own. Those congregations who have tried to delegate these care-giving responsibilities to the pastor are out of God’s will. The role of the pastor isn’t to bear the burdens of the flock. The pastor can only be at one place at one time. He does not have the physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual capacity to personally “chaplain” every member of the congregation. Requiring or expecting him to do so will insure that your church remains small and that your pastor remains perpetually exhausted and frustrated. As the late Adrian Rogers said, the pastor’s job is to “feed and lead.” And to do so as he himself follows Jesus Christ.

This is something that the folks at Saddleback clearly understand, and it’s why they are embracing the vision God has placed on their pastor’s heart and why, I believe, they will succeed. While most churchgoing Christians in America are preoccupied with how many times their pastor has visited them, whether he wears a tie on Sunday, or how loud the music is, Jesus’ servants at Saddleback understand that they are on a mission. And they know Jesus has given them Rick Warren for “such a time as this” to lead them on that mission. They understand that they need to take up the work of the ministry and let their pastor focus on “prayer and the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6). They understand the Big Picture and their place within it. They know what a pastor is supposed to do and what they as a church are supposed to do. I don’t want to get sidetracked into a debate on whether you agree with all that Rick Warren says or does or whether you’re comfortable with the “seeker sensitive” model or any of that. Let’s put that aside for now and instead agree that Saddleback is committed to reaching the lost for Jesus Christ, equipping the saints for ministry, and cultivating a spirit of love, joy, and fellowship among the family of God.

If more Christians in America had the heart of those at Saddleback, churches across America would experience more joy and love with less strife and internal conflict. Pastors would not be experiencing burnout, depression, health and marriage problems at the ridiculously high levels they presently are, and more people would be coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The United States of America would be a better nation today,  and the world would be rocked to its spiritual core. Jesus’ churches would be unstoppable. Let us pray and work for such a day.