What Happens When the Leader Does Everything?

In a nutshell, the organization suffers. Sometimes the organization closes.

As I’ve shared before, I remember a church staffer who admitted that she would be crushed if the church didn’t suffer a little bit (or a lot) when she left. My response.

Especially in a small congregation, it’s tempting for pastors to do it themselves. The volunteer pool is limited in size. “Nobody else will do it if I don’t do it.”

If the leader stops doing it – whether we are talking about the pastor or (when there’s no pastor) the committed volunteers who do everything from unlocking the building to paying for the new boiler – one of two things will happen:

1. Someone else will step up if it’s really important.
2. Nobody will step up and it doesn’t happen.

We pastors usually want our congregations to thrive as best they can. As a solo pastor, I often overdid it. If congregations I served didn’t have the capacity to offer multiple adult classes, for example, I offered them all myself – something for young parents, something for people who don’t drive at night, something for professionals who don’t get off work until after 7 pm. It’s unsustainable.

I know a pastor who – during COVID – offered every worship option: online worship, outdoor worship. regular worship in the sanctuary with or without masks. This was a congregation of less than 15 participants. Believe me, people will never appreciate this kind of commitment until after that leader leaves. And even then they still might not appreciate it.

Paul wrote to the people of Ephesus:

The gifts (Jesus) gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry,

Leaders: our role is not to do all the ministry. Our role is to equip others to do the ministry. If nobody wants to be equipped, if they don’t have the time, if they are just too tired – it’s time to close that church. And the church will close not because the Presbytery/the bishop has closed their church.

The church closes because – through the years – they have chosen to close their church. They chose to close their church when they:

• Used funds to prop up an institution rather than serve people. (They’ve used money primarily for their building upkeep, their cemetery, themselves.)
• Assumed that mission and programming is about “getting new members” rather than serving their neighbors without expecting something in return.
• Privileged rules over relationships, by legislating what people should be doing in the first place based on their relationship with Christ and each other.
• Going cheap in terms of personnel and other resources.
• Expected the church to cater to their own needs and preferences.

Jesus didn’t die for cemetery maintenance, new member campaigns, dress codes, single ply toilet paper (it’s so much cheaper!), favorite hymns, pew cushions, or the copy machine. Jesus died for you and me and exhausted leaders and cranky members and my-way-or-the-highway pastors and that homeless guy who smells terrible and the Christian nationalist who is so confused and that stupid Putin. This I know.

Image of Cinderella unravelling (played by Lily James in the 2015 film)