In our previous article, we began answering the question, “Pastor or Leader?” Should the role of the person who directs a local church be that of a pastor or a leader? Is this person’s function best defined by leadership or pastoral principles? 

We pointed out that this choice of “either-or” is a bit too limiting. There are at least four perspectives on the question at hand.  In our previous article we presented the first two of these: 

1.  The Leader-Who-Leads:  The Entrepreneur

2.  The Leader-Who-Pastors:  The Manager 

You can read part one by clicking here.  

In the second part of our two-part series we examine two more models for pastoring: 

3.  The Pastor-Who-Pastors: The Chaplain

4.  The Pastor-Who-Leads: The Shepherd

As stated in our first article, surgically-precise definitions are not possible in the study of the roles of pastor and leader. The differences between them can be more fluid than concrete, and even situational as a pastor walks his ministry.  Finally, please keep in mind that our focus is the local church pastor. 

“’In the beginning was the Word,’ and in the beginning of pastoral care was theology – right down to the Puritan era and beyond.” Os Guinness, America’s Last Men and Their Magnificent Talking Cure 

3.  PASTORS WHO PASTOR

This is the Chaplain

Definition: 

Think Caregiver. The “pastor who pastors” focuses all her energy and efforts first and last on the health and well-being of the people under her spiritual care. She knows the names and stories of each one. She visits them in their homes, hospitals, or nursing homes. She meets with them for coffee or a meal. She’s available to them 24×7. Because of the many needs of her people, and because her personal attention is so needed by so many, she rarely takes time off, be it a weekly sabbath, quarterly retreat, or annual vacation. She is a shepherd whose full focus is on the sheep God has given her.  

The Internal Pastor-Leader Balance

The Pastor-Who-Pastors is care-focused. She wants people to be cared for, and her life as a pastor is given to providing that care. Her heart and mind are that of a pastor. It’s her DNA. It’s who she is. She gives her life for the happiness and health of her sheep: happy and healthy sheep mean a happy pastor; unhappy or unhealthy sheep mean an unhappy pastor. Even though she is in a position that also requires big picture leadership, she avoids leading, preferring instead to give herself to providing personal pastoral care. She’s going to pastor. It’s who she is. It’s what she does.   

“Being a pastor who satisfies a congregation is one of the easiest jobs on the face of the earth – if we are satisfied with satisfying congregations.” Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor 

Additional Characteristics: 

1.  People focused – wants to provide personal pastoral care for the people of her church, needs time and energy to do it. 

2.  Her ministry principle is providing the care of Jesus to each person in her church. 

3.  Goals:  See to it that every person is well-cared for; keeping the family and every member well-fed and content.

4.  Personal accountability is something she welcomes as long as there is time in her busy schedule of caring for others.

5.  How Goals are Achieved: her own personal ministry to each one, each committee, each group. 

6.  She has followers. The attraction to people is not that of a celebrity, but of a caregiver: she makes people feel love, joy, and peace; she gets along well with everyone.

7.  Doesn’t know the fads or follow them. May or may not know the entrepreneur’s conferences. Doesn’t buy the latest book or resources unless they are on how to improve congregational care. Doesn’t know all the buzzwords and sermon slogans.

8.  Its ethics over optics. Character over techniques. Back stage and “We’ll get to that front stage when we have time; after all, it’s just for the church.” Substance always over style, but still, “we do want to be and appear friendly.” 

 9.  Power source: All you need is love.  

10.  Prayer is a way of life personally, in one-on-one encounters, small groups, committees, and large gatherings. Her prayers are always for the health and well-being of her people. 

“We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness (Mt.18.3); there is no professional tenderheartedness (Eph.4.32); there is no professional panting after God (Ps.42.1).”  John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals 

4.  PASTORS WHO LEAD  

This is the Shepherd 

Definition:

The shepherd is an individual focused on both the big picture and the person. He sees that the well-being of the entire people and the well-being of the individual are wrapped up together in one great mission – as is the well-being of those outside the Big “C” Church who still need to know God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ. The “Pastor-Who-Leads” is an individual who, in his heart and mind is a pastor. It’s his DNA. It’s who he is. He may sit in the position called, “Pastor,” but because he is responsible to guide his sheep to green pastures and still waters – even through the valley of the shadow of death – he gives himself to the big picture of the church as well as to individual church members. He lives praying, studying, learning, teaching, conferring, and deferring, all in his work of guiding the flock as a whole, providing care to each sheep individually, and looking for those sheep who are still lost along life’s way. He is the undershepherd of John 10’s Good Shepherd and Psalm 23’s Shepherd-Lord. He’s going to pastor-lead. It’s who he is, and so, it’s what he does. 

“Simply put, pastoring is bringing God to people. A pastor is one who brings God to people by imparting the Word of God (formally and informally) out of the reality of his or her life, which is undergoing authentic and continuous Christlike transformation. Just as in Jesus, the Word must become flesh in the pastor so that the transmission of truth is both exegetically sound and experientially real.” John W Frye, Jesus the Pastor

Additional Characteristics:

1.  Mission focused – wants to make disciples of all nations, beginning first in the church he pastors, but always with a heart and eye on the world that God so loves; He needs disciples to do it. 

2.  His ministry emphasizes biblical principles, always wrestling with how those principles can best translate into the most effective methods needed to fulfill the biblical mission to make disciples. These decisions on method are always open to change, based on needs and opportunities, aided by the wisdom of others.

3.  Goals:  See to it that people are growing as disciples and are discipling others. Rather than growing the church’s numbers, the Pastor-Who-Leads is concerned with growing the Gospel in people in the church and outside the church. 

4.  Personal accountability is something he welcomes. He knows that doing flows from being, and so, careful attention must be given to his own discipleship. He seeks out mentors and peers who are willing to serve him in this way. 

5.  How Goals are Achieved:  Learn, love, and live biblical principles, always being flexible in the development and application of the methods that will most effectively enable the church to fulfill its mission of making disciples of all nations, beginning in its own altars.

6.  He has partners. As a pastor, he knows that God has given the office of pastor to the church. He knows that God gives that pastor a spiritual anointing to lead the church in a way no one in the church can. Just as there are things only a father can give us and things only a mother can give us, there are things only a pastor can give us. The Pastor-Who-Leads knows this. But he also knows that he cannot give the church everything it needs: he does not have all of the spiritual gifts, ministry, or wisdom the church requires. These are resident in every member and all members of the local body of Christ. And so, the Pastor-Who-Leads fills the role of pastor, while helping church members grow as members and ministers of the body – partners in the mission.  

7.  The Pastor-Who-Leads probably knows the fads but isn’t concerned with following them. He might attend one of the entrepreneur’s conferences if he hears it has been valuable to others in making disciples or in being a more effective administrator of the mission. He buys books (and reads them) but is not a fad-reader nor a consumer of the “latest and greatest, must have, got-to-read-it, secret-to-success” book. He searches for meaty, eternal and transcendent resources, be they print, digital, course, or conference. His sermons are not built of catchy and alliterative slogans but of the careful exposition of the Word of God. 

8.  Its ethics over optics. Character over techniques. Back stage over front stage. Substance over style. For him, there’s nothing wrong with excellence and everything right with excellence. But it’s always for the glory of God, never for the glory of self or even of the church.

 9.  Power source:  Not by might, nor by power, but by God’s Spirit. (Zech 4.10).  

10.  Prayer is life. It is one part of a whole life that pursues God through many spiritual disciplines, among them Bible study, adoration, solitude, Bible meditation, intercession, service, etc. 

“A man may have a charismatic personality; he may be a gifted administrator and a silken orator; he may be armed with an impressive program; he may even have the people skills of a politician and the empathic listening skills of a counselor; but he will starve the sheep if he cannot feed the people of God on the Word of God. Programs and personalities are dispensable. But without food, sheep die. Feeding the flock is therefore the pastor’s first priority. ‘Feed my lambs’ (John 21:15, ESV).”  Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, The Role of the Pastor, from The Deliberate Church 

APPLICATION

So which model best describes you, Pastor?

            The Leader-Who-Leads: The Entrepreneur

            The Leader-Who-Pastors: The Manager

            The Pastor-Who-Pastors: The Chaplain

            The Pastor-Who-Leads: The Shepherd 

Question: Which model did The Model, Jesus, walk?  “Model” as in flowing from the being, character, nature of the individual doing the work and flowing to the need of the work itself. 

The answer is described in two bible texts:  John 10 and Psalm 23

Jesus was a pastor who led.

Jesus the Pastor:

I am the good shepherd – It’s who I am. John 10.11, 14

Because I am a shepherd, I lay my life down for the sheep. John 10.11

I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. John 10.16

The Lord is my shepherd – see Psalm 23 below 

Jesus Who Led:

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10.3

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. John 10.4

He leads me beside still waters, . . . in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake . . . through the valley of the shadow of death. – see Psalm 23 below for more on Jesus and His leading. 

In Psalm 23, we see the poignant picture of the Pastor-Who-Leads, the seamless blending of a shepherd’s heart and a leader’s hands, each flowing together to serve the needs of God’s people . . . . 

The Lord IS my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

“On the last day there will be a parade of ordinary men, whose names you have never heard, who will hear the following from the Savior: ‘Well done, good and faithful pastor.’” C.J. Mahaney, The (Unadjusted) Gospel: Ordinary Pastors.

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“Of all vocations, surely the gospel ministry is the one whose paradigm is most radically formed by the dynamics of godly mentorship.” Stephen Baldwin