“Making Changes in the Established Church” (Part Seven)

We’re talking about making proper changes in the established church, one that has been there for a little while.  That’s as opposed to starting your own church from scratch, which many young pastors choose to do.

There are some great advantages to helping a church that has already been there, that has resources and sometimes a building and a history of ministry, a heritage of trust.

But sometimes the place has gone downhill and become simply a meeting place or a monument to the past.

A pastor can be an initiating leader who becomes a catalyst for good kinds of changes.  But he must not be afraid of this.  Just as the linebacker has to realize he’s going to have some hard tackles and he’s going to be picking up pieces of other’s mistakes – the linemen do miss tackles and the linebacker must step in.  Here are some reminders about the pastor’s role:

1. The pastor is to shepherd through change.  To lead and to guide.

I Peter 3:1-5 is so clear about his example and his motives and the fact that he is truly shepherding.  The shepherd has to decide when to go to another pasture.  The shepherd has to decide what changes to make about safety for the evening, and what is a wolf and what is a false danger.

2. To lead is to plan the future.  And that includes changes.

The pastor must in one way walk ahead of everybody else – that’s actually one of the meanings of the word lead in the New Testament, to stand above or to be in front.

In many ways the picture of the captain of the ship standing high on the pulpit of the ship or on the bow and looking out and warning of dangers or rocks or other boats – that is a good picture of the shepherd of the local church.

None of us is God, so we can’t really plan the future as much as to make charts and plans about ministries and see week spots and strengthen the strong areas.

3. No one else will eat and sleep the church like the pastor.

I have often heard pastors be grieved because of this. They say:

• “Well, they just don’t care as much as I do.”
• “I try to get other staff to worry about the little things also, and they just want to take care of their areas.”
• “I had such high hopes for these lay elders, but they don’t even always read the agenda in between times or catch up on the background information that I give them.”

Such quotes remind us that everyone has some other major responsibilities except us.  Only the senior pastor has this as his main ministry.  So let’s accept that.

At worst, let’s just say that that’s why we get paid more than anyone else on staff if we’re the senior pastor.  At best let’s say that we have this entrustment from our Lord to lead and to be the person that helps initiate vision and ministry in this church.

Tomorrow we will see several more ways pastors can be positive change agents in the local church.