The Work of the People
Dear Pastor,
Your congregants have access to the internet and through it to a myriad of sermons and teachings, some of them by some of the most talented speakers, preachers and teachers out there. The fact that you offered these congregants physical proximity and the others couldn’t is no longer true. For the time being you are one of the myriad voices offered on the internet. You might think of yourself as a gifted and talented speaker but let’s be honest most of us looks pale in comparison to the preaching talents of Andy Stanley and Rick Warren. We don’t have the influence, following and supporting teams of the Tim Kellers, the Francis Chan’s and the R.C Sproul’s (yes, even some deceased ones beats us). Not to mention the financial cushions Joel Osteens, the Benni Hinns and the Kenneth Copelands have on us even though our theology is way less heretical. So now that we found ourselves on the same platform with tough competition, what is going to get your congregants log on to what you have to offer and remain loyal?
Just one thing. Hearing their own stories, voices, challenges, and dreams reflected upon in the light of the gospel. Your ability to make it more personal than these big names. It used to be easy. There used to be a time where everybody in a congregation shopped at the same store, read the same newspaper, and spent an equal amount of time and energy in one community. Now it is different. To make a message personal, you cannot just go local. You need to know and speak into a great diversity of life experiences and localities. Being a pastor during a time where many people has lost their basic connection to their neighbourhood is complicated and hard. And here is the bad news: Even your best efforts consistently, will not do the job in the long run.
Yes, your knowledge and insight into people’s lives and the relevance of the gospel to it, will be found lacking. Soon people will be tempted to wander off and seek a preacher more eloquent and talented, even though he is equally disconnected from their world.
But what you can do is this. You can share the soapbox. Yes, I mean your platform and your pulpit. You can give people a voice. You can minister to that yearning we have deep inside to reconnect with our neighbours. You will be less in the spotlight and you will have less control when you risk giving various people a voice (two things we have to admit we hate to have less off!). You might even be accused of being lazy in the eyes of those that feel that you should take centre stage and do it all because “that is what he is paid to do”. It might in some people’s eyes be what you are paid to do but I don’t think that is what God calls us to do.
The Greek derived word “liturgy” literally means “the work of the people”. We have made it in practice “the work of the pastor”. Our liturgies should return to what it was intended to be in the first place: A conversation between man and God with many voices.
If you dare venture down this road expect the following:
Gatherings will engage you more
Instead of gatherings being an obligatory engagement where you dump on people all you could scrape together so that they might be edified (but also impressed enough to justify their contributions to paying you a living wage), you will now experience gatherings as a growth opportunity for yourself as much as a growth opportunity for others.
People will leave (but also join) your church
Hardly news. This is the case in every church and sect. Some people have a deeply ingrained mindset in which their understanding of church is that of a spiritual service provider and congregants as end consumers of God’s grace. Many of these people’s mindsets could be changed over time. I know because mine did but some will feel its to much and leave for a church that plays that game. The bright side is that others will join because of this shift and believe you me those joining searched hard for what they have now found at yours, so they will probably have a much higher of buy-in commitment and sacrifice than those who have left.
Your ego will be challenged
Your ego stays unnoticed in a corner, fattening up on all those “good sermon” and “you are such a good man of God” comments. When you involve others, you share these portions with many others. Your ego will not like this, come out of his dark corner and shows you just what a big pain it could be. Don’t fall for its temper tantrums as you adapt. He needs to loose the weight-you are doing him (and yourself) a favour!
Your preparation will increase in duration and difficulty
The perception is that it takes less preparation time when you delegate roles to others. Not True. It is more difficult and takes even more planning and execution time that doing it all be yourself would have taken you. But it is time well spent and like with most things it will get easier and more aerodynamic as time progress.
Your congregation will grow towards maturity and will outgrow you
No child can reach maturity properly without challenges and a turn to share in the responsibility. Somehow, we seem to think congregations can. Not so. You the pastor is not the essential, timeless element. You are the costly luxury, the facilitator. You are a seasonal gardener. If you have done your work well, there will be a good harvest in which your input played a role. Clinging to that role and demanding a salary beyond your season is detrimental to the well-being and longevity of that garden. Good pastors work themselves out of a job.
Every pastor and leadership should ask themselves this: How can we make our liturgy and ministries once more an expression of “the work of the people” rather than just an expression of the talents of the pastor and a few? How and what can we do together with the people in stead of on behalf of them?
Gabriel J Snyman
May 19th 2020