Senior Pastors

From our forum

Many senior pastors are guilty of trying to be generalists.  The attempt to be proficient at lots of things when God has really only called them to equip the saints.

Response

If our primary call is to equip the saints (which I believe is true, with the added phrase – helping to point the way), then it seems to me we would need to be more general than specific.  This question may apply more to solo pastors in smallish churches…If I have a teacher and need to equip that person to teach, shouldn’t I know something of teaching (at least enough to recognize a good one when I see one), even if it isn’t my primary gifting?  Likewise for all the other gifts.  I don’t believe a pastor has to be gifted in all things, but knowledgeable, some basic skill and at a minimum the ability to recognize the gifts in others who might be encouraged to lead or train leaders.

From Bill Easum

Equipping doesnt mean we need to know how to teach. Equipping is more role modeling Jesus and the mission of the church. The key here is this- the less the lead pastor is involved in and the fewer people the lead pastor works with the larger the potential for the church.  This has nothing to do with the small church.  We need to quit thinking about differences in small an large churches. All large churches were once small churches. The difference - they didn't act like a small church and they grew. Lead pastors in any size church need to focus on the leaders of leaders and not the church. So they dont have to be generalists- they have to be focused on doing what Jesus did, equipping the leaders of leaders, not the teachers or small group leaders, but the folks who will be equipping others. In a small church the leaders of leaders are the pastor and the key lay leaders. In the larger church it is a mixture of paid and unpaid staff who are the leaders of leaders. But the key is for the lead pastor to get to the point where he or she never works below the leaders of leaders.

From Bill Easum

Senior Pators need to focus on a very few things like guarding the DNA, hiring the right staff, holding people accountable, and depending on the size of the church equipping people to serve or seeing that the staff is equipping people.