Leadership, Expectations, and True Ministry

I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ-

I who am humble when face to face with you,

 but bold toward you when I am away!

2 Cor. 10:1

The Corinthian church was a problem church.  As a church, it had more spiritual gifts than any other (or at least longer lists of gifts than Paul gives to other churches).  They had wealth due to their sea port.  They had the power and presence of an Apostolic pastor.  Yet, they fought all the time and tolerated incredible immorality in their midst.

This is not all.  Probably their greatest sin is the way they listened to the Word of God.  Ancient evidence suggests that Corinth was ruled by those who were the best speakers.  Thus, Paul declares that his speech was not with "lofty speech or wisdom" (1 Cor. 2:1).  Instead, he came having "decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Cor. 2:2)

I do get tired of this passage and the entire Corinthian correspondence being used by anti-intellectual believers as a means of justifying their foolishness.  Paul is not discrediting being educated or knowledgable!  Instead his writing and ministry to Corinth illustrates his persistent attack on the Corinthian expectation of what real ministry should look like.

What do I mean?  Expectations shape one's perspective.  

The Corinthians would only listen to a great orator.  Their town was full of great orators.  Paul did not measure up.  Thus, they were constantly persuaded to reject Paul's message for the "wisdom" found in their great speakers.  Such worldly wisdom was not founded on the Word of God, but the wisdom of a decadent and failing Greek society.  

An honest reading of the Corinthian correspondence reveals that Paul constantly dealt with the expectations of the Corinthians.  He came in the power of the Spirit.  His writing was much stronger and more persuasive than his speaking.  He warned them, cling to Christ and to faith!  Do not be led astray by the false but persuasive teaching of the great orators.  

On Tuesday I began a discussion of leadership through our strengths.  I shared I had spent much of my early ministry experience trying to "shore up" my weaknesses.  It took time, but what I have learned is that those who constantly critiqued my weaknesses wanted me to be a different person.  They did not want me to confess my weaknesses and play to my strengths.  They wanted me to not have my weaknesses!

In other words, what people expect from a leader or a pastor shapes how they measure the effectiveness of the leader or pastor.  Ironically, it often is not even the pastor or leader that is the issue.  It is the size of the church or the individual's preference for the size of a church that really determine leadership expectations.  

Let me give an example from a fine book by Gene Wood called Leading Turnaround Churches.  Wood inserted in the book a handout he gave to those who joined his church dealing with expectations.  This is a fine resource for helping folks identify their pastoral expectations.

Wood begins with a look at what the bible says a pastor does.  As he defines it, a pastor must feed his people the Word of God, must protect them from false teaching, must model the Christian life, and must equip others for ministry.  What is most interesting is how a pastor performs these duties changes according to the size and expectations of the church.

What does this look like?  Wood begins with the description of a small church pastor.  Those who pastor church of less than 100 people spend much of their time being everyone's friend.  They are expected to always be the one who opens the doors and the last one to leave every event.  They know everyone in the church, they know their children, they know their out of town relatives, and they know the name of everyone's dog.  In addition, this pastor spends much time doing church maintenance and office administration.

So what happens if you are not a complete people person who is built to maintain and establish relationships?  People who are used to this size church will think you are a bad pastor!  You might be a great speaker and vision caster.  You might be able to see multiple futures for the church and you might know how to get there.  Let me say, if you don't do it all yourself and quickly grow the church, these gifts do not matter.  Why?  The expectations of a church this size and the people who like this size church do not match your gifts.

I know several of my greatest detractors in ministry have been people who liked this size church and found that I did not match their expectations.  I was told that "I don't love the people enough."  I was told that "I was not friendly enough."  For those who know me, these charges may sound strange.  Yet, they arose from unmet expectations.  Interestingly both of these folks said I was the best preacher they had ever heard, but they were more than ready for me to "leave their church alone!"

Similarly, Wood describes the expectations of several other size churches.  For example he gives a church that ranges in size from 400 to 800 people.  In this church, the pastor had better be able to speak well.  As he states, "His people will forgive him for anything but preaching poorly." (80)  This pastor does not socialize with many of the people in the church.  Why?  Because he does not care?  No, because there are way to many people.  Instead he spends his time training leaders, managing the office, counseling in assigned times, working in outside ministries, and in study.  This pastor often does not do hospital visits unless it is for a key church leader or something serious.  Instead others within the church do the visitation and caring ministries of the church.  In fact, those gifted in these areas of ministry do them!

This pastor still feeds, protects, models, and equips the members of the church to grow the Kingdom, but  now the ministries are often done by other people.  Ironically for those who believe the pastor should do everything, many times people in this size church feel they are better cared for and loved because the variety of ministries and care is far greater than in a smaller church.

So what does all this mean?  Leaders must lead from their strengths (see Tuesday's post).  They must know them and work from them to perform their ministry.  They must also know their weakness that come from these strengths.  Humility comes from knowing how God can work through our strengths in spite of our weaknesses!

Furthermore, a leader's effectiveness is also determined by the expectations of their ministry.  A perfectly good leader will be undone if placed in the wrong situation with the wrong expectations!  I think both the leader and those being led must be aware of these expectations.