dismissal from the pulpit

Jimmy,

I am not attacking you. And one thing I am not condoning is pastors who putting it bluntly are lazy.

All I am suggesting for some to consider is that a pastor, just like an effective "secular" worker, must use his time wisely. It is a fact that a church cannot grow past a certain stage if the pastor's only method of keeping people is by being "hands on" loving them. It is simply impossible and like USN2Pulpit hinted at a church can demand so much of a pastor that he loses his family in the process. I know that is not what you are suggesting but it does happen all to often.

I am not saying that a church cannot be a great church built by a pastor who visits with everyone in the church a couple times a year. That is one type of church and certain people such as yourself really value that...that is quite alright.

I think a pastor will be effective if he genuinely loves people as you have suggested. But I think a church can continue to grow beyond 400 people if along the way a pastor identifies you, Jimmy, as someone who understand the value that people ascribe to being visited and loved. So he takes you in, and trains you and loves and you and develops a structure and sends you out equipped and on a mission to not only visit people but to gather others who want to do the same. The pastor still meets with you on a weekly basis or monthly basis and has you in his home because you are a obviously a leader in his church and he wants to invest in you because you will duplicate his efforts and your efforts by producing other leaders.

Now that he has done that...he has the time to focus on "outreach/marketing" initiatives, inspiring sermons and developing other leaders who have a passion for other ministries, etc. All the time he is in the lives of people but it is a little more strategic.

There is nothing wrong with a church of 400. And we need lots of churches of 400. But 400 is really not that many people in a community of 10,000; 100,000; 500,000; 2,000,000 or whatever size community that a church exists in. The goal is not to grow a big church, but to reach a community and we must be effective in doing it.

 

I've seen a youth pastor get fired. His was fulltime, but he only speant about 10 hours a week at the church or on church-realted business.

A nearby church dismissed the pastor in charge of the children's ministry program, and placed those dutied under the pastor in charge of family life ministries. The dismissal was part of an overall employee downsizing. They layed off about 20% of their workforce.