Some large church pastors are called to specific roles like administration or family ministry or outreach into the community. It’s essential for congregations to understand that – in larger congregations – all the pastors don’t do all the things. (i.e. Don’t criticize the Associate Pastor for not teaching any Bible studies if their job description doesn’t include leading Bible studies.)
For a solo pastor or a generalist associate pastor – not to mention a Head of Staff pastor – the responsibilities are overwhelming. And yet the expectation is that these particular pastors actually try to do all the things:
- Sermon preparation
- Worship leadership
- Hospital and other pastoral care
- Office administration
- Spiritual counseling
- Teaching the Bible and theology
- Officiating at weddings, funerals, baptisms
- Moderating meetings
- Mentoring
- Strategic planning
- Local engagement
- Faith development
- Staff and volunteer supervision
- Day to day operations
- Officer and staff training
- Local engagement
- Addressing walk-in emergencies
Sometimes a new pastor is asked to spend more time on administration because “our last pastor was a great preacher who couldn’t manage the details of running an organization.” Or maybe the last pastor was very active out in the community, but now the congregation needs someone to address the crumbling steeple and how to raise money for a new one. But no matter what, every pastor has a primary job that tops all others. We are called to love our people.
Years ago lots of clergywomen like me were connected via RevGalBlogPals, a network of bloggers in ministry. One of them – my colleague and an amazing pastor/mid-council leader – Sarah Sanderson-Doughty – wrote a blog called You’ve Really Got to Love Your People. She now posts here.
Sarah is a leader who – like other excellent leaders – knows what’s essential in serving a community of human beings. You’ve got to love your people. When they are in trouble, you stand with them even though they are middle-aged and your role involves youth ministry. When they are sick, you pray with them even though your purview is global mission. When they are on the cusp of eternity, you hold their hand in hospice even though pastoral care is not what you were called to offer.
You’ve got to love your people. And who are our people, Pastors? They are obviously the members and friends of our congregations. They are possibly former members of our congregations. They are possibly the former pastor of our congregations. They are possibly the other clergy in town. They are possibly the strangers who drop by in need of food. They are possibly the agnostic friends whose kids play sports with our kids. They are possibly members – like you – of the PTA or the community choir or the garden club but they aren’t members of any spiritual community.
Truth: no one can humanly be available to all people all the time. For the sake of our limited bandwidth/mental health, we need to prioritize how we spend our time. We need to respect boundaries. We need to comply with our job descriptions. We need to abide by social norms. What I’m not talking about here: inserting ourselves into situations where we aren’t wanted or needed. What I’m not talking about: at home visits for everybody.
Another truth though: Church members and friends won’t remember all the sermons or Bible studies. They won’t remember how well we prepared all the holiday bulletins. They won’t remember how efficiently we dealt with the broken HVAC system or the delicate personnel matter. But they will remember that – when they needed us – we were warm and comforting and welcoming. They will remember that we loved them.
Maya Angelou said it best: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
