From Faithful Ministry to Fruitful Leadership
by Lovett H. Weems, Jr.

“What is your ideal picture of the excellent pastoral leader of the future?” An ecumenical gathering of church and seminary leaders reflected on this question. The first person to respond described the ideal pastoral leader as deeply grounded in the faith tradition, strongly connected to God, steeped in ongoing prayer, and faithful in taking weekly Sabbath time. This picture of pastoral excellence resonated with many in the group.

Something, however, is glaringly missing from this picture. Hundreds of congregations in my denomination are in serious trouble. Children are not being taught the faith. Disciples are not being made. Lives are not being transformed. The poor are not being visited. Communities are not being redeemed. These congregations know something is terribly wrong. And in most cases, the problems have little to do with the pastor’s prayer life or whether the pastor takes weekly Sabbath time. In fact, in many of these churches members deeply respect their pastors as sincerely spiritual people of the utmost personal faith and integrity. But they also know more is needed from their pastoral leaders.

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Leadership Vignette
Everybody Here Knows Me

The pastor of a fifty-member church in a small Midwestern town
tells how a clear vision touched a young boy’s life.

I believe the vision that drives this congregation is one of an “open table.” We believe God calls all to fellowship with one another. Everyone comes as divine guest. I asked one of the children, “Why do you come to this church?” The child replied, “Everybody here knows me. Everyone knows my name.”

The church lived out this vision when an eleven-year-old named Matthew started attending the church regularly, even though his family attended only occasionally. At school Matthew spent considerable time in the principal's office because of disruptive behavior. At church he followed a similar pattern. During his first year of attendance, he fought with the older children, raced through the hallways, and threw paper airplanes during worship. He did, however, come to worship each Sunday, stay for breakfast provided after worship, and stay for Sunday School that followed.

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Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

Charles Denison used three questions as he started a new Presbyterian church:

• How can this church be better than any other church you’ve attended?
• What does that mean?
• Why should anyone come to our church?

Source: Mainline Manifesto by Charles Denison, Chalice, 2005

Editors:  Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel
Production and distribution:  Joe Arnold

Copyright © 2006 by the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Leading Ideas material may be freely distributed with attribution (exclusive of material protected by separate copyright).