Part of the ministry of the pastor is to “equip the saints to do the works of ministry, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children…” (Ephesians 4.11-13).
Your job is to equip the saints to grow up, to be ministers, to do the works of ministry, to help people mature. But the truth is in my experience, most pastors do everything themselves. That anointing that leads them to gather people leads them to serve those people every second of every day, when trul the most loving thing to do is to equip the people to serve themselves. The Biblical model is not a one man band doing all the ministry, but rather one man equipping all to minister and creating a safe space where people can grow up and mature and become effective ministers, full equipped to doing the works of ministry.
You need to teach your church about what the Bible calls the MINISTRY OF HELPS and give people space to be put to work. Now, sometimes – and listen carefully here – the reason why some pastors do not promote others or even let them serve – is pastors can have great, big egos. I guarantee there are people in your church who are better at ushering than you, better at cleaning the church than you, better at organizing a conference than you, better at making lunch than you, better at a whole host of things. That should not threaten you, it should make you very grateful indeed. God will always send people to help in your weak areas and that is nothing to be embarrassed about. God will send you people who are strong where you are weak, and you should embrace them, equip them, and eventually employ them.
Let the people who you put in place (within reason) do the job their way and use their wisdom and grace. Let them hear God how the job should be done. Obviously they should be submissive enough to run things by you, and no one should ever usurp your authority and leadership, but don’t shove everyone on the floor just to make sure everyone knows you are the boss.
Here is the bottom line – if you do not give space for your people to serve, they will never mature, and there is seriously nothing worse in the world than a church full of immature, childish people. Have you ever been in a restaurant with a couple of children just being immature, misbehaving, screaming? Ever been stuck on a 10 hour flight with a screaming baby? Now that’s acceptable because that is not their fault, but if a Christian stays immature, that’s their fault, and as their primary feeder and leader, that can often be your fault as well.
Some pastors like their church immature because they like to be the one adult in the room, but eventually that gets boring and you need some adult company. Pastor, whatever God has called you to do, you cannot do it with a team of toddlers – so start equipping, and making space, and pushing your people to lead and serve so they can mature and eventually run departments, plant other churches, move forward and win big team battles.
Selah!
Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers 