What Does a Pastor Do Anyway?
That’s a tough question sometimes. My denomination, like most, doesn’t answer it in a particularly straightforward way. But we do have a list of 18 “pastoral skills.” When a congregation is looking for a new pastor, they rank these 18 in order of importance for what they need in their ministry. Ministers have the same list that they are supposed to rank in order of their best skills and the areas where they most feel called.
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The list is useful as part of a process for determining a good match between a pastor and congregation, but I think there are some things that could be added, and our thinking about the list may need to shift as we consider the impact of changing priorities in the Church. More on that below. First, here’s the list.
- Administration (Managing the affairs of the congregation and other organizations)
- Christian Education (Writing or selecting appropriate curricula for the educational ministry, and planning activities for groups of all ages)
- Community Leadership (In areas like drug problems, schools, community organizations)
- Counselling (On a regular basis)
- Crisis Visiting (Serving people at times of illness, death, trauma, family crisis, job loss)
- Denominational Service (Sharing in the work of all the courts of the church)
- Equipping Church Members (For integrating Christian faith with life)
- Evangelism (Relating the gospel to people outside the church and helping the congregation to do the same)
- Home Visiting (On a regular basis)
- Inter-Church Co-operation (Working in inter-denominational programs and activities)
- Leadership Development (Planning for and sharing in the training of leaders for the church’s program)
- Leading Worship and Preaching (Planning and conducting worship services)
- Mission Outreach (Evangelism and social justice in the community, the country, and the world)
- Personal and Spiritual Development (Providing resources and guidance for people’s devotional life, and for prayer groups, retreats and other small group experiences)
- Program Development (Establishing goals, and organizing programs in church and community)
- Stewardship (Faithful use of our time, gifts and money in response to the generosity of God in Christ)
- Work with Seniors
- Work with Youth
What’s Missing?
If you made it through that list, congratulations. Now, let me ask you – are these the critical things that we really need our pastors to be doing? These are all important, and I would want a pastor to have some skill in all of these areas, but I think there’s more. Of course there is much more to finding a new pastor than a skills inventory list – there are written narratives, sermons to evaluate, and interviews, but I wonder if these kinds of lists, are used as a primary filter for selecting pastors. I think they are, and I think we need a few other items on the list, or perhaps a 2nd list to go along with this one. How about these items for a start:
- Creativity (is this a skill?)
- The Ability to Cast Vision
- Resilience in the Face of Adversity
- Complete Reliance on God
- Good boundaries, including a commitment to taking Sabbath, vacation and study leave.
- Discernment (we expect the pastor to spend significant time every week praying about what is next for the congregation)
- Leadership (not training leaders, but actually possessing leadership skills)
- Team player
- Adaptability to change
- Communications (not just preaching, but the expectation that the pastor spend time on crafting how communication inside and outside the congregation will happen. For example – what is on the Church’s web site?)
Skills are One Thing, but Priorities are Something Else
What if we were looking for 3 to 5 skills in a pastor that could serve the congregation well as priorities shifted over time? Here’s what I mean. The leadership in our congregation has set 2 current priorities – one of them is our Sunday gathering (including worship, fellowship time, and children’s ministry). This means that I’m using my teaching skills to run a few courses on worship for a very small group of people who will likely end up contributing significantly to the worship leadership later this year. I’m also spending some time evaluating and trying to improve my preaching. This all takes time and effort, and of course there are a whole bunch of other things going on. During this particular season I will likely do less visiting and relationship building across the congregation. I’ll do less of some other things too. And that’s because of the priorities that have been set.
The above list of 18 encourages congregations to think about their current priorities and the skills needed to work on those priorities. But priorities change. Congregations need pastors with certain skills that can be drawn on as priorities shift.
Is Your Pastor a Leader Through Change?
I’m not against the list – it works well in combination with other tools for figuring out if the pastor and congregation are a good fit. Perhaps I’m suggesting another list of skills or traits to look for in a pastor. Skills necessary to guide a congregation through changing times and shifting priorities. At the very least, we need ways to help congregations know whether the pastor they need is a leader, or a chaplain, or a program director, or something else entirely.
What would you put on the list?
