Pastoral Care is Out the Window in Biblically Based Churches
One thing separates the mediocre pastor’s actions from those of the highly effective and might I say biblical pastor. Know what it is? Okay, don’t want to guess? Well here it is – the mediocre pastors spends most of his or her time doing all kinds of pastoral care- taking care of members, visiting the hospitals and shut-in, mediating conflict in the church, doing counseling, and doing things in the office other than devotional or sermon prep.
So what does a highly effective pastor do?
I guess before I answer that question I need to define what I mean by “highly effective.” To me “highly effective” means the pastor is doing something to enhance both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, i.e. the church is a place of love, trust, and growing people.
So what does a highly effective pastor do? As little as possible other than focus on being the spiritual architect who sets the culture and mentors the core leaders.
So what happens to pastoral care?
Read Acts 6 and you will get your answer.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Bill,
I’m so pleased that you are blogging!
Thank you for putting this kind of liberating material out there!
August 21st, 2008 at 5:13 am
I wonder if it is indeed mutually exclusive — one of the most effective pastors I’ve ever seen (if not THE most effective) was also the most pastoral. I’ve always assumed that he was effective because he was so pastoral — and that he proclaimed the gospel with a vengeance from the pulpit. He also was tremendously charismatic in his personality. The church grew from 200 to 1200 in 5 years.
Leading is best done by example, in my humble opinion. I’m the first pastor in years that has visited the shut-ins, given communion to those in nursing homes and done any sort of counseling. They have not had “pastoring” in years — after all, they are just tiny rural churches and stepping stones to a bigger “more important” appointment. I also spend a lot of time in sermon prep and visioning what these churches need and where they need to go. And for the first time in years, these churches are healthy.
Isn’t balance of both required? Will the church follow you if you don’t model caring behavior?
August 21st, 2008 at 8:39 am
Well Rev Mommy, you missed my point. the point was the biblical role of the pastor isnt to do pastoral care. Eph. 4 and acts 6 discuss that. Therole of the pastor is to equip others to do pastor care among other things. which is more important that you role model or that you have a church that role models what it means to be church.