The Pastor’s Problem
“Theories are good, but proof is better.”
I spent nine years of my life getting a post-secondary education. I attended one of the best seminaries in the world and received fine scholarly instruction. However, when I graduated, I soon discovered that I didn’t really know how to do my job.
I had the same experience that hundreds of thousands of pastors have had – seminary didn’t adequately train me for ministry. Funny thing is that I’ve yet to hear a nurse say nursing school didn’t prepare her for nursing or a doctor say medical school didn’t prepare him for medicine. Yet almost all of us have had a similar experience with the inadequacy of our seminary education. Why are seminaries so unsuccessful at doing their jobs?
I think I know.
Imagine that you want to take up oil painting and you’re committed to paying for some oil painting lessons. Would you pay for lessons from someone who’s read about painting, but has never actually painted before? How about someone who tried painting, wasn’t very good at it, so they decided to go into teaching instead? If you have any measure of common sense, you will seek out an instructor who not only has painted before, but one who’s actually good at it.
Unfortunately, we don’t take this same simple wisdom when it comes to our seminaries. A large number of our instructors have never been pastors, or if they were, weren’t very good at it. And these are the same people who are designing the curriculum for pastoral training. It’s like painting an elephant when you’ve never seen one before – don’t be surprised that you don’t do a very good job of it.
As it turns out, scholars can only effectively train you to become a scholar. It actually takes a pastor to train you how to be a pastor. And a successful pastor to train you how to become a successful one.
There may be hope in the future, however. I had a conversation in Orlando with one of the leaders of one of the few evangelical denominations that are actually growing about the changes they were making in their seminary up north. He said they were now seeking to staff the seminary with professors who had a track record of being “excellent practitioners”. When I asked why, he simply responded, “Because we’re trying to create excellent practitioners.” Hmm. Makes sense to me!
Okay, so we haven’t had the ideal preparation for ministry. What are we going to do about it?
The Pastor’s Solution
It was during my first year of full-time ministry in Colorado that I became aware of how little I actually knew about leading a church. Fortunately, the idea dawned on me to look for pastors who were doing a good job and find out from them. It’s really that easy.
Oddly enough, this simple solution is lost on most pastors, but it’s worked wonders in my own ministry. In the last decade, I’ve led churches to grow at an average rate of 50% per year. In the last five years, we’ve seen our church grow by 50% by conversion. Last year alone we saw just under 900 people come to Christ. And this isn’t somewhere in the deep south or in one of the most conservative cities in America, in five years we’ve gone from a small church to a mega-church in heavily de-churched post-Christian Canada.
Why have we been so successful?
- Not because of God’s special favor.
Some believe that God, in his almighty sovereignty, has decreed that our church shall prospereth, while thine own church shall sucketh. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s not like God loves me more than he loves you, or Christ died on the cross a little bit more for me than he did for you. Scripture teaches, in several places, that God earnestly desires that everyone everywhere should repent and be saved. He wants to see your church grow more than you do.
- Not because we pray harder.
Okay, we’re actual Christians, just like you, and we do, in fact, pray. But do we pray more than you do? I seriously doubt it. I have never received the slightest impression that pastors of growing churches are more holy or pray harder, longer, or better than pastors of declining churches. Though I will admit, if you have an unusually lousy prayer life you should expect a negative result, but it’s not like we’re the Yodas of prayer or anything like that either.
- Not because we’re super-geniuses.
You can fill a pretty big library full of books of all the stuff I don’t know. But, the secrets to our success are pretty basic and easy to understand once you hear them. There’s nothing in my bag of tricks that requires you to have a degree in order to put them into practice.
- It’s because we’re excellent thieves.
You can call me Pastor Robin Hood – I steal from the rich and give to the poor. And I’m always on the lookout for new riches. If I hear of a pastor who’s an unusually good communicator, I want to study him and figure out what he’s doing and why it’s working. If I hear of a pastor who’s a gifted evangelist, I want to find out what’s going on. If I hear of a church that’s very effective at discipleship, or congregational engagement, or just about anything good, I want to take that practice or idea, break it apart, reverse engineer it, and apply it to my own context.
It’s actually easier than it sounds. Most churches of uncommon excellence are more than happy to give away their secrets and tell you all the how’s and why’s behind them. 90% of the good ideas I’ve ever had I’ve taken from someone else – and 90% of those ideas were given enthusiastically.
“Search for the most noble examples of success that you can find – and then steal their ideas.”
But don’t you have to be careful what you take and who you take it from? Of course! The fact is that there isn’t a single thing you or I do that is perfect in the eyes of a holy and righteous God. So whenever we beg, borrow, or steal an idea we need to treat it like fish – eat the meat and throw away the bones. No leader is strong at everything, so focus on learning from their strengths. If someone is a great speaker but terrible manager, take their speaking ideas and not their management practices. If someone is a better evangelist than a theologian, take the evangelism and leave the theology. Even those who you strongly disagree with will occasionally have a good idea. I’m not exactly a fan of Mormonism, but their practice of encouraging families to spend one evening a week together without any screens on isn’t the worst I’ve ever heard.
Who I steal from
There are a number of prevailing churches that I regularly go to for insight and inspiration when it comes to how to do church. Some of them are:
Northpoint Church, Alpharetta, Georgia
Northpoint does so many things well and they offer everything from how to be a better communicator, to how to effectively plan an order of service, to more effective administration systems. Their lead pastor, Andy Stanley, also has an excellent leadership podcast that’s worth listening to for general management and leadership advice.
These guys are passionate about giving everything they have for free. No one makes it easier than Lifechurch. From their YouVersion Bible app to how to lead better staff meetings, their open.life.church website has a ton of practical helps for you and your church.
Newspring, Anderson, South Carolina
These guys are the best I’ve ever seen when it comes to how well they treat newcomers – simply outstanding! They’re not just friendly – they’re your friends. Online, they have some excellent volunteer management and training resources that have had an enormous impact on my ministry.
There are many others to learn from as well. Saddleback, Willowcreek, Church on the Move, Elevation, Seacoast, Hillsong, Planetshakers, Holy Trinity Brompton, etc. You can find amazing churches all over the world to learn from.
Better yet, look around your own denomination or even your local community. Ask yourself what church is strong in what area and how you might be able to learn from them.
Leaders are learners.
Application Steps:
- Choose an area of ministry that you are most passionate and gifted in – could be preaching, evangelism, discipleship, children’s ministry, music, assimilation, etc.
- Write down the names of three churches in your local area or in your denomination who demonstrate excellence in this same area.
- Call or email those three churches right now and set up a coffee or phone call with those pastors in order to pick their brains. Write a check mark beside the church name once you have the appointment confirmed.
- Write down a short list of questions you would like to ask about how they do things, why they do things, where do they get their inspiration from, and what would they do if they were in your shoes.
- Choose an area of ministry that you are weak in where your church is in the most need of help – could be preaching, evangelism, discipleship, children’s ministry, music, assimilation, etc.
- Write down the names of three churches in your local area or in your denomination who demonstrate excellence in this same area.
- Call or email those three churches right now and set up a coffee or phone call with those pastors in order to pick their brains. Write a check mark beside the church name once you have the appointment confirmed.
- Write down a short list of questions you would like to ask about how they do things, why they do things, where do they get their inspiration from, and what would they do if they were in your shoes.
Congratulations!
If you actually do the above action steps I personally guarantee that your ministry will improve dramatically over the next few months!