When you think of good Pastoral leadership, what do you think of? Do you think of “Rambo”? Do you think of a Pastor who can do it all? One who can counsel with the wisdom of Solomon, Preach with the fervor of John The Baptist, Sing like an angel and teach like Jesus?

There’s a reason why Pastors rank among the highest at risk of heart attacks amongst various professions.

Good Pastoral Leadership. What exactly does that mean? In the traditional church, it means the Pastor alone does all the preaching, teaching, counseling, exhorting and encouraging. This has been a sacred belief among us for too long. It is ludicrous to imagine that one man can effectively pastor a growing revival church. One person only has so much time. They have only so much patients. They can only be stretched so thin.

Moses found this out. Had it not been for a wise father in law, Moses would have eventually lost his health and mind as he attempted to single handedly pastor millions of people. He would have been a casualty as many good Godly leaders have been in our generation. Ministry was never meant to be carried out by one individual alone.

What is the biblical definition of a Pastor? What is his scriptural role? Eph 4:11&12 gives us the answer. “And he gave some…Pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

So scripture tells us the purpose and role of the Pastor. It is to perfect the saints, so they can do the work of the ministry, so that the body of Christ can be edified. Can I suggest that when the saints are perfected, or brought to a place of maturity, they should also come to a place where they are able and enabled to minister to one another. I would further suggest that when the saints come to this place of enablement, the body of Christ which is the whole church, becomes edified and will naturally become a place conducive to revival.

Too many churches keep their pastor hopping from situation to situation. As saints we need to realize that it is not the Biblical role of the pastor to make all the hospital calls, do all the counseling, teach all the bible studies and do all the preaching. It is his role (biblically) to enable and empower the saints to do this.

Why would God want the Pastor to enable others to do something that he could do himself? In short, the Pastor is only one man. When a Pastor is the only person in the church doing the teaching and edifying, the growth of the church will be limited to his time, experience and anointing. However, when that same Pastor invests himself in the others in the church, he is tapping into unlimited resources.

Moses’ father in law understood the vast needs of the people. He understood that if Moses alone was going to try to minister to the needs of the people, Moses would become burned out. There was no possible way this one man was going to be able to meet everyone else’s needs. It was actually going to take a small army of ministers to get the job done. (And Moses thought he could do it by himself!)

Now think of your church. Do you really think the Pastor alone is able to meet all the needs of the church? How about 90% of all the needs? How about half. What ever amount he is able to do, leaves a portion unmet. Here is why our churches are struggling to grow. Sure we are having new people come into the church, but as many come in, others go out. Why is that? Their needs are not being met.

Every member needs to be a minister. When God first showed me this, I thought there was something wrong with my thinking. This was so far from anything I had seen modeled. Yet, when this type of ministry is released in a church, more of the unmet needs can be met.

Every saint wants to work for God. They may be limited by their experience but I am convinced that given the opportunity to work within their realm of expertise and training, a mature saint will work. If they are not currently doing a work for God, then it’s the role of Pastoral leadership to introduce them to a ministry they are capable of doing and mentor them in this work until they are able to carry it our themselves.

About Pastor James Smith

Pastor James Smith, Valparaiso, Indiana – Founder of PreachIt.org, OpportunityHope.org, and PastoralHelps.com.

He equips pastors worldwide with sermons, leadership tools, and encouragement, while also caring for orphaned and at-risk children in West Bengal, India through OpportunityHope. Beyond the orphanage and school, OpportunityHope provides clean water wells, livestock, and other humanitarian helps to families and villages in need. Additional books, leadership training, and mentoring resources are available through PastoralHelps.com.