Ephesians 4:11 Revisited

A lot of modern literature describing the role of the pastor assumes that she or he is an extraordinarily high capacity leader in whom are embodied the five gifts: apostle, shepherd, prophet, evangelist, and teacher.

That description works well within a highly personalized, consumerist paradigm of ministry which happens to predominate the current church culture in North America.

Sanctioned by the denominational bureaucracy, trained by professional academics, and entered into a complex, competitive system of search and call, the pastor functions much like one's cardiologist or orthodontist. Congregants consume what pastors are trained and strained to deliver until they become enamored of another or if ever disappointed with the customer service or competence in all five areas.

Put into the context of the servant-leader congregation, however, and the pastor-as-embodiment-of-the-five-fold-gifts breaks down.

In the servant-leader congregation, lay people live and work in their communities with authority and power, equipped for sacrificial and sustainable mission by a leadership team that contains at least one or more for whom one of the five gifts is a significant and tested strength.

The role of the pastor becomes more that of overseer, coach, and accountability partner to the team of leaders. Mission - which is central to the life of the Christ-follower - becomes apostolic, evangelical, prophetic, educational, and pastoral because leaders serve the various members of the congregational team - which sees itself not as a voluntary association but as a community of people called into purposeful work together with expectation of significant outcomes.

If that is true, then why are so many pastors still attempting to fill too many of the equipping and serving roles?

I suspect that so long as congregants can afford to pay us to serve vicariously through us, and, so long as we allow their co-dependence to be our defining paradigm, nothing will change until the downward spiral goes deeper and faster enough to require positive change.

Of course, through prayer, the Spirit may transform us and those we serve to move more into the model the Ephesians seem to employ. This may be what we are seeing in some congregations that are rediscovering their love for serving and leading in their communities.