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Pastors Are God’s Gifts to His Church

Are developing those who will become God's gifts to future generations?

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service…” Ephesians 4:11, NIV

I have appreciated this verse and the succeeding text for a long time. Typically, we focus upon the “equipping the saints to do the work of ministry” part as contrasted to having the paid church staff do ministry for them. And that is good and necessary – too many professed Christ-followers are sitting around waiting for someone else to do what God has equipped and is equipping them to do.

But this is a December article, so I want us to think of the gift part. Jesus himself gave the church pastors and teachers. Sometimes, when ministry is tough, we may forget that we are a gift to the Church, and sometimes our churches do not seem to be thinking of us as gifts to them, but the Bible says that we are.

It’s one thing to believe that God gives pastors to his Church, but we still need to figure out where those gifts are. He is creating them, but where do we find them and where do they develop those gifts?

Recently, the EFCA West team was discussing issues related to seminaries and pastoral transitions including why so many churches seem to have more difficulty than before in finding a pastor or other vocational ministry workers for their churches. I wasn’t sure where it came from, but a thought planted long ago reemerged in my brain. 

“Seminaries don’t make pastors. Churches do.”[1]

I am struck by how often I work with churches during their pastoral transitions and find that they don’t know how to look for a pastor. Typically, they believe they should contact seminaries for placement contacts. Yet few know they should look inside their own churches and among other churches in the EFCA family (or outside of our family) for pastors and vocational ministry workers. I think I know why – because so few of us are intentional about looking within our own churches for potential pastors and vocational ministry workers, investing in them, giving them opportunities to develop and grow their ministry skills, and sending them off as Christ’s gift to a local body of believers.

In one of Albert Mohler’s articles, he writes, “But seminaries do not call pastors. God does. And seminaries do not make pastors. Churches do. Keeping that straight is important.” Mohler notes that the issue is not that seminaries just teach theory as opposed to practice. He continues, 

“Ministry studies in the seminary are not merely theoretical. But there is no teacher of ministry like the local church. The preacher should learn a great deal about preaching in the seminary, but he will become a true preacher only through the call and experience of preaching the Word to a congregation. In the best context, this means a senior pastor taking younger pastors under his care and teaching—the congregation invested fully in the perpetuation of a gospel ministry.”

Where did early church pastors and teachers come from? Not seminaries.

At our December EFCA West Orange County (CA) regional gathering, a panel of Gen Z vocational ministry staff talked about the Gen Z experience of working in a church. One question they were asked was what they think they need from those of us from preceding generations to allow them to flourish. Here is my summation of their responses:

  1. We desire opportunities to share about our generation while having a safety net around us because we are still young and lack experience.
  2. We desire those in charge to be open to change, including doing current things in new ways.
  3. We desire to see our generation’s church workers have healthy work/life balance so we can thrive.
  4. We desire to be taken seriously.

This baby boomer thought to himself, “That’s exactly what I wanted in my twenties – to be taken seriously, to be able to meaningfully contribute, to be able to influence changes and freshen things up, to be taken seriously, and to have a safety net of older, wiser, men and women who would encourage me and also hold me back from my own lack of wisdom and discernment due to my limited life experience.

Not every disciple of Jesus is gifted to leadership roles – most are to be followers. But those that are gifted to leadership roles seem to be wanting the same things, generation after generation – only the environment seems to be much different.

If pastors and ministry workers come from churches rather than seminaries, we in leadership today need to be talking about that. Here are some ideas to jump start your conversation.

  • Are we intentional about looking for and developing leaders for tomorrow? If so, what specifically are we doing and what results are we getting? If not, why not, and how can we start doing so?
  • Who are the pastors and vocational ministry workers that have already been developed in our church? How were they developed? Where are they serving now? If we cannot think of any, why is that? Have we been trying?
  • What are some age/experience-specific church ministries that students and young adults can do in our church? Think specifically about middle school, high school, and young adults (yes, that’s Gen Z). Where in our church are their budding leadership and teaching and caring pastoral gifts being developed?
  • How do we as individuals mentor and develop budding leaders and teachers in our church?
  • Pastors, vocational ministry workers, and board members: who might you start mentoring and developing as the future leaders in your church or another place in God’s Church? Unless there is a name, it’s not going to happen.
  • Board members: Is developing and mentoring future people to be “gifts to the Church” part of the job description for pastors, vocational ministry leaders, and board members at your church? Should it be?

If seminaries don’t make pastors but churches do, we all need to get busy. There are a lot of people out there who need to become followers of Jesus, get baptized, and be taught to obey all that God has commanded us to do. I think there’s a Bible verse about that.

Merry Christmas, and thanks for being one of Emanuel’s gifts to His Church.

Let us know if we can help and how your conversation goes. Contact Bob Osborne by e-mail at bob.osborne@efca.org

This is one of a series of articles intended to facilitate and guide church leaders’ conversations about significant issues that often are not talked about among pastors, boards, and church leadership teams. Visit the EFCA West website to see prior Something to Talk About articles.

1

I may have found the source in an Article by Albert Mohler for The Gospel Coalition’s blog, Seminaries Don’t Make Pastors. Churches Do. (April 17, 2018).

Bob Osborne

Bob Osborne is the director of church health for EFCA West. He is passionate about equipping, encouraging and strengthening church leaders: “Our good intentions are not enough; we actually need to implement them.”

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