Moderators Gregory Matthews Posted March 15, 2017 Moderators Share Posted March 15, 2017 See: http://www.christianitytoday.com/karl-vaters/2017/march/quit-telling-pastors-stop-pastoring-successful-church.html?utm_source=ctweekly-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=16245031&utm_content=500054312&utm_campaign=email Quote Gregory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Gregory Matthews Posted March 16, 2017 Author Moderators Share Posted March 16, 2017 Regardless of whether or not congregations need pastors, many SDA congregations do not effectively have pastors. Quote Gregory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeMo Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 Our church has operated quite effectively without a pastor for a couple years now. It's a very small church. We don't have elders, deacons, deaconesses etc. Everybody just seems to kick in and get stuff done. We always have one or more people ready to speak, do praise music, bring breakfast, etc. Visitors are sometimes perplexed at how we operate so smoothly with no leadership. We respond that all members here are leaders. A conference official has spoken at our church once in those two years. I wish more like-minded people would join our church so we could achieve sufficient "critical mass" to do more outreach in the city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeMo Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 Pragmatically, once a congregation reaches "critical mass", they probably do need a pastor; and eventually a Board. The article states that "For a church to be great, we’re told, the pastor must do less pastoring, more managing and leading. ... Pastors were never meant to do all the caretaking and shepherding of the flock." In my experience, that only works when a pastor is lucky enough to have a thriving, supportive united (different from uniform) congregation that is motivated to do the work. I have been in congregations where pastors are the whipping boy of whatever group of saints is working against the pastor. I've see both liberals and conservatives (relative to me) run pastors out on a rail, for some perceived doctrinal error stated in a sermon or for stuff like supporting (or prohibiting) a contemporary song service or drums and guitars in the sanctuary, or allowing yoga classes in the church basement. CoAspen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Gerr Posted March 18, 2017 Moderators Share Posted March 18, 2017 I can't recall any pastor in any of the churches that I have been a member who ever made it a priority to "equip the saints for ministry". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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