Pastors are Overrated

When you get right down to it, pastors are overrated. We’ve bought into the CEO-model of pastoring, in which one extraordinary person can have such an influence on an organization that everything’s fixed. To be sure, such people exist, but this model is neither helpful nor realistic. As a pastor, there’s so much that’s beyond my control. Erwin McManus said it best: about the only thing I can control is my passion. I can’t control the results of my ministry. I may be martyred. My church may suffer. It may go down the tubes. I can’t control any of that. That’s all up to God. Somebody has said that pastoring is like gardening. You weed and water, but you can’t make something grow. Maybe part of the church’s problem these days is an unhealthy reliance on humans to do what only God can do.