The Death by Managerial Ministry

Several years ago, I questioned my call to the ministry. I almost didn’t go through with my ordination into the PCA. And not for denominational reasons. 

I was surrounded by men who had a more managerial vision of the pastoral office. And that’s not me. 

What do I mean by managerial pastors? Well, I haven’t entirely nailed it down. But, in essence, it’s a view of the pastoral ministry as overseeing a heavily systemized rule-focused process where people are given narrow goals to fulfill under the close supervision of the pastor.

This approach requires a pastor to fit people to the goals of the church. In other words, people are molded around the needs of the church which are generally determined by the pastor. The pastor’s attention to members is very reactive based on goals being hit or missed.

In this form of leadership, innovation is often perceived as a threat because it upsets the process and shifts goals. Moreover, it’s perceived as rebellion because the pastor’s authority is exercised through the maintenance of a system that you just “challenged.”

Hence, managerial pastors often attach great significance to small failures and/or little “challenges” to the system. Assimilation into and compliance with the set system tends to be how they measure commitment to the church.

Not always but often a failure to assimilate or comply within the particular church system is met with sharp rebuke and/or guilting tactics. I’m not sure why. I think it’s hard to inspire people into a system that they don't entirely believe in. Thus, the manager falls back on guilt.

This is not only difficult for the church members but also very hard on the church leader. Management can turn into a grind where the pastor is more of an enforcer than an influencer. More of a boss than a father. And it wears them down and isolates them. 

I hated this idea of church leadership. If that was what ministry was, I knew I wasn’t called to it.

I have zero problems with a pastor ruling, overseeing, and correcting. But pastors also equip, instruct, and motivate people to find ways to use their gifts in the church. Pastors mold the church, to a great extent, around the people whom God has placed into their congregation.

Now, there are certain elements which must be present in every local church. However, the local church will take on a particular form that is determined by its particular members. The pastor helps anchor the application of those gifts in the broader vision of a biblical church. 

This I get. I see that in Paul and his relationship with Titus, Timothy, etc. I see it in his writings on church body life in Romans, Ephesians, and 1 Corinthians. If I was allowed the freedom to approach pastoral ministry this way, I’d keep with it.

And I was, so I did.