“The Cost of Leadership” (Part Two)

Necessary Costs

These are things that are important if we really want to work hard

and see the church grow and give extra effort and not just put in time.

1. Embrace the responsibility!

Paul told Timothy, “If any man desires the office of bishop (pastor), it is a good work he desires to do” (I Timothy 3:1).

And if we have that office we should embrace it, as Michael Jordan used to enjoy driving to the basket, or as your favorite player takes his sport so very seriously.

Pastoring is not a job where you put in time or just try to get by.  It is a calling that must be embraced with great joy and love.

It is not hard to embrace it when we realize that the preaching of the cross and the shepherding of people and leading them toward a good vision – these are the most wonderful privileges in the world!

2. Plan on working hard and smart.  Not just hard.  Not just smart.

Surely that means strategy for the church and vision for the next few years.  It means we are at site “A” and we want to get to “B” and here are the steps in between and the dates by which we wish to accomplish this!

Surely it means something like a “master schedule” for the week so we know when we visit shut-ins and when we study sermon and when we do staff work or administrative details.  We attack the week and not sit there and allow the week attack us!

Surely working hard means some early morning meetings and some time with discipleship groups and individual people of the church.  It means that we are cultivating leadership, and communicating with those already in important roles in the church.

These are deliberate assignments we give to ourselves as pastors, to work both hard and smart for the glory of Christ.

And that is a cost.  It’s a cost in time and effort.  It means we don’t “float,” but sometimes swim upstream.  It means we don’t just sit there, but take stands.  We share love and we reach out.

3. Stir the passion.

We who lead must care for our own spirits, not just by praying for God’s Spirit to strengthen us, but by realizing we serve the Lord Christ, Creator of this universe, designated prince of peace.

4. See the potential.

Some people seem so at ease with this kind of thing, writing down visionary goals for the next five years.  Others have to labor to come up with aggressive ideas.

But all of us can think of descriptions of the church that are in the Bible and fruits of the Spirit and moods of love, and seek to see those as identical with our church.  We can see the potential for new people by looking around the city or county or area, and beginning to pray that way.  We usually accomplish only what we embrace and pray about.

It isn’t like church is all about our own goals – it is the result of God’s gifts, and He is sovereign, and His Holy Spirit is the one we seek for strength.

But God entrusts the church to human leadership also, and there we are responsible to think through the potential for the church and how we can help it to be strong.

5. Love the people.

This is a very clear command from our Lord, who first loves the people.  He is the best at it.  He is the Good Shepherd who carries the lambs in His arms (Isaiah 40:11 ).

And He wants us to do the same.

I Peter 5 gives three negatives about pastoring and the three positives that tell us to do it because we are good shepherds also, doing it because we really want to.  And because we really love the people.

That will show in many ways, not only with our words but our actions with people and our response to needs and our care to be with them before and after services and in other groups.

6. Study the principles.

That takes both time and discernment.  Time to see what others do well, and copy their excellent principles, not their exact pattern.  We can’t be another Willow Creek if we didn’t start that way, and if we don’t have Bill Hybels.  But we certainly study their sensitivity to unbelievers, and embrace that.

It is even true related to the New Testament churches.  No one would want to be just like most of them.  But the Scriptural principles of what a church should be are usually clear.  These we must copy.

7. Recruit the team.

An important part of all church life is to disciple and to teach others to do what we do.  “I do, we do, you do,” and other principles for growing a team.

Many pastors can be good ministers (servants) themselves, but be poor at pastoring, which includes sharing the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-15).

It is a cost for sure, for it is much easier to do ministry alone or by ourselves.

Obviously any list of things can be mechanical and simply a chore.  Or it can be part of a grander scheme to do things very carefully in the church, and to at least avoid human error when it comes to trying to get things accomplished for the glory of our Lord.