T’SHUVA

You may be wondering about my little rant yesterday - what was that about?

I have been in pastoral ministry for a large proportion of my adult life. Most of it ‘full time’ and a small proportion of it ‘bi-vocationally’. I’ve pastored within two major denomonations, two independant’s and one ‘new’ movement. All of them from the evangelical tradition. My rant yesterday about the types of personalities usurping the position of pastoral leadership applies to all of them - especially the newer ones. There seems to be a divorce going on between leadership and the role of pastor. However, Jesus, the greatest model of pastoral leadership, didn’t separate them.

CEO’s build empires, administrators manage systems, politicians argue for their view to be preeminent and conquistadors conquer and dominate. All try to tell us they do it for society’s good. I’m yet to be convinced. None of these fit the shoes of a biblical church leader. They can often be useful in supporting the role of the pastoral leader, but never to supercede it.

So what is a biblical pastoral leader meant to look like? I’ll try to answer this in future missives. For those who can’t wait, have a read of some of Eugene Peterson’s writings about pastoral leadership e.g. The Contemplative Pastor.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about pastors - those who are called to lead and feed the church. I have been increasingly disturbed by the rise of CEOs, administrators, politicians and conquistadors who are taking charge of many churches, while the ministry of the pastor (or shepherd) is being relegated to a side role.

God save us from such a travesty!

I will write more about this, but until then, remember the words of Jesus -

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11

On Friday 10 November we celebrated Neil’s birthday by spending the day together. Zoe didn’t have any lectures so she joined us.

We had a lovely day with lunch at Pizza Express in the Bay and then a visit to the New Theatre to see ‘A Christmas Carol’ in the evening.

Jonathan gave Neil a Skype phone which was quickly registered and used to call Sweden. Free telephone conversations are wonderful when you live in different countries.

All in all Friday 10 November 2006 was a very good day and hopefully closed the door on one of the most painful years we have ever lived.