Introduction

We have been discussing paradigm shifts for church ministry.  You can go here to see the first article in the series, talking about eight important shifts for churches to survive this year and beyond.  Today we discuss a fifth shift in church culture that must happen for ministries to thrive: a shift from a pastor-driven ministry to a people-driven ministry.  For churches to survive, the people must take ownership of the ministry!  Many churches do not view ministry this way.  Too often the pastor is viewed as “the guy who does the ministry” while the church members view themselves as those who receive the ministry.  This is not how God intends the church.  When I was in the pulpit, I regularly told our people “the ministry is not about one man!”  My point was this—do not make ministry about a pastor.  A pastor may be the spiritual leader of the church, and certainly, a pastor is an important part of a church, but he is not the church, nor should he do all the ministry.  As great as some pastors are, they are only one person and cannot do everything themselves.  They need help!  In fact, the goal of pastoral ministry is to not do everything singlehandedly, but instead to train others to take over the ministry.  This is what Biblical discipleship is all about!  In a sense, pastors ought to be working themselves out of a job as they train members of the body to do the work of the ministry themselves.  This is when churches thrive!  Many times, however, churches want to make the ministry about one man—the pastor.  This mentality becomes most critical when it comes to issues of ownership and issues of responsibility.

Regarding ownership, some churches give the pastor all the ownership.  He is the one who “does the ministry.”  After all, he went to seminary.  He is viewed as the paid professional whose responsibility is to do ministry while the church members sit and watch.  But ministry is not a sideline sport!  Sure, these church members might get involved in some token aspects of service, but not too much; after all, “that’s why we pay the pastor.”  Such a type of church needs to move past this mentality and put emphasis on the people—the people need to take ownership of the ministry.  If the people are not practicing discipleship themselves and investing in each other, the church is destined to struggle.  This all comes down to an unbiblical understanding of the role of the pastor.  According to Ephesians 4:12, a pastor’s job is to equip believers for ministry.  Churches need to make this important transition in how they view ministry, and in order for churches to thrive, the people of the church need to step up and take ownership of the ministry so that it is no longer “the pastor’s ministry” but “the people’s ministry.”

Another critical issue that needs to be addressed lies in the realm of responsibility.  Who is responsible if a church struggles?  Many times, churches want to place the responsibility solely on their pastor.  When someone leaves, it is assumed that the pastor is at fault.  If a ministry or program failed, the pastor is to blame.  If attendance is down, this is directly related to the pastor’s ministry.  But are these things really the responsibility of the pastor alone?  I suppose in certain scenarios some responsibility may lie with him, depending on the situation.  But as I have already said: the ministry is not about one man!  The pastor is not the church; he is part of the church!  Churches that will thrive take both ownership and responsibility when it comes to the church and its ministry.  When I was pastoring, I dealt with some of these issues directly.  When people wanted to place blame on me as the pastor for people leaving, I tried to turn it around on the church as a whole and ask them “why was our community not compelling enough to make them stay?”  My point was that if some can abruptly “hang up” their membership the reason is not that a pastor failed to appease them and keep them around.  If the church had a community that was compelling enough to keep them, they would not be leaving.  Oftentimes these issues of ownership and responsibility go together at this point.  Churches that have a pastor-driven philosophy of ministry fail to take ownership in areas like discipleship, mentoring, hospitality, and simple outward expressions of Christian community.  Then when people leave, they want to blame the pastor and put the responsibility squarely on his shoulders.  The reality of this situation is that oftentimes the church was not being the type of church God wants it to be and the result was a community that was not compelling people to stay and partake.  This community is more of a country club type of church which I talked about previously, and as I mentioned before, country club churches work fine if you are a country club person, but they do not do a lot to reach those outside the country club.

Final Thoughts

Churches need members who are both involved in and take responsibility for the condition of the church.  Certainly, pastors have a responsibility before God to lead and shepherd, but church members each have a responsibility as well: to get involved in the ministry and look out for the good of the church.  Churches that will thrive will not pass the buck to their leadership but their members will work individually to take ownership and own responsibility so that the church can grow together as a whole.  Churches that understand these concepts if will be poised to move forward in the future!

Questions to ask of your church:

1) How do I view my pastor?  Is he there to do ministry for and to me, or to help me learn and grow into ministry myself?

2) Do I view “every member discipleship” as my role, or is this just the role of the pastor and church leaders?

3) How do I come to church?  Do I come to serve and get involved, or am I there just to consume?

4) Who do I blame when the church struggles?  Do I own my part, or do I just pass the blame on the leadership?