My Response to Questions about Church Leadership

A college student at Capital University is writing a research paper on church leaders and their congregations.  He asked me to respond to the following questions.  Here are the responses I sent to him.

1) What is your role in the church?

Senior Pastor with responsibilities of overseeing the ministry of the church and the work of the paid staff.  Through my ordination, I am to focus on Word (preaching/teaching), Sacrament, & Order (the organizational function of the church.)  In addition, I seek to cast the vision of the church which is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.

2) What are the challenges you face as a leader of a congregation?

- To share the good news of Jesus Christ to a diverse congregation of all ages, political viewpoints, economic conditions, and education backgrounds.
- To grow a healthy and growing congregation in a secular culture that is becoming increasingly disconnected from organized religion in general.
- To share the good news of Christ in new and fresh ways while respecting but not being tied to past church traditions.
- Keeping people informed about the happenings of the church.  I do this through worship announcements, newsletter articles, church facebook page, twitter, but the truth is it's impossible to "over-communicate."

3) What are the challenges you see the congregation facing?

- Since we are a mainline church with a lot of history, we are sometimes not open to new ways of reaching our community with the love of Jesus Christ.  The key is to celebrate our past history while at the same time, seeking innovative ways of reaching a new generation for Christ.
- Also, in the past, (40 plus years ago) people in a community sought to attend the closest neighborhood church.  Today, people tend not to attend a church unless invited by a member.  We need to relearn what it means to intentionally invite people with us to worship and to share our faith journey with others.

4) What role do emotions play in your life as leader of the church and in the life of the congregation?

One of our five core values is "passionate worship."  The word "passionate" reminds me that there there is an important emotional dimension to our faith.  John Wesley, the 18th century founder of Methodism had a "heart-warming" experience at a prayer meeting where he "felt" an assurance that Jesus Christ had died on the cross for him.  The Christian faith isn't just a head religion, it's a heart religion. 

At the same time, it's important to remember that church leadership is a long-term commitment which means that I need to be an emotionally healthy person if I want to be an effective leader.  Clergy burn-out leading to pastors leaving the ministry because of all of the pastoral demands is becoming a real problem.  There are a lot of highs and lows in ministry and I need to take care of myself physically and emotionally so that I can provide consistent leadership.
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