Book #5- What's A Pastor To Do?: The Good and Difficult Work of Ministry

Rowell, Jeren. What's A Pastor To Do?: The Good and Difficult Work of Ministry. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2004.

I first read this book during my first year of seminary. We read the book and Jeren actually came to our class and lead it one week. I remember thinking, "I'd love to serve on his district." Well, it's fours year later, and I'm serving on the district where Jeren is the district superintendent. I'm re-reading the book, and it's interesting reading a book written from someone that you know. Jeren has been a mentor to me without even knowing it. He is a great encouragement to the pastors of the Kansas City District, and he's one of those pastors that I'd like to model myself after. I'd recommend this book to anyone going into ministry. It's a short book, at only 94 pages, but it is one you can read devotionally, using a chapter a day for reflection. Here are the quotes I found the most helpful:

the foundation of pastoral health is a thoroughly biblical pastoral theology. We get into trouble when we take our cues from the world. (12)

The only way to take that you are as a person, throw it into the mix of a congregation, and expect a pastoral ministry to emerge is if you have a strong pastoral theology. What is it that God is asking me to be and to do in this place, in this time, and for the sake of these people? Every decision we make about our work must be placed against that call. (16)

So what we do must come from somewhere other than the expectations of folks. It must come from somewhere other than our own expectations. Often the demands we make of ourselves are unrealistic...These themes are repeated so often that there is simply no mistaking their import:

• Pastors are to study and preach the Word.


• Pastors are to pray and take time to listen to God.


• Pastors are to give wise counsel and spiritual direction.


• Pastors are to set an example for the people. (17)

Our challenge, then, is to take our job description not from the expectations of people or even from a denominational polity alone. We take our cues from the Bible. We give ourselves most of all to the core work that the Scriptures outline for us. This will require discipline and strength. We must be disciplined enough to resist being distracted by the myriad of urgent things coming at us every day. We must be strong enough to keep our ordination vows, even when our people want us to do other things. (18)

It is not possible to identify a leadership style, gift set, or personality that enables long pastoral tenure. Individuals with wide diversity of attributes have enjoyed this kind of ministry. It seems that it boils down to one basic factor that is expressed in many different ways. It comes down to a covenant that is embraced by pastor and people to live and work together no matter what may come. Outside this kind of covenant, there is no such thing as a healthy long-term pastorate. (25)

There is a "Liturgy of Pastoral Covenant" on pages 26-28 that mirrors the installation service we use on the Kansas City District, and I may use it yearly on the anniversary of my installation at Drexel to renew the covenant we have made as pastor and people.

It is not a question of whether or not you can get things done. It is a question of whether or not you can get the right things done. (30)

A leader will have genuine compassion and love the people he or she leads--a desire to see them experience God's very best...A leader doesn't act before he or she has spent time alone with God in prayer...A leader is willing and able to overcome fear and take risks for the sake of the vision...A leader knows and accepts the fact that when one attempts to do anything significant, there will be opposition and negative people to contend with...A leader does his or her homework, studies the situation, evaluates possible solutions, and is careful and timely about communication...

• A leader constantly names God's activity in the midst of the people.


• A leader confronts sin and disobedience strongly.


• A leader exercises great caution and integrity with regard to remuneration and privilege.


• A leader is mindful of the personal identities and stories of his or her people.


• A leader keeps the worship of God central in the life of the community. (31-32)

Becoming a "real" pastor involves living faithfully in the midst of a people as prophet, priest, and shepherd. (36)

There are a lot of good choices in life--a lot of noble things to which you can give yourself--but the call of Jesus is for reckless abandonment to the way of the cross. That's the standard of discipleship that Jesus has clearly set. Yet we so often try to soft-pedal the demands of the gospel. We serve a people who regularly tempt us to make the gospel nonintrusive to their materialistic lives. (37)

The cost of total obedience is high. It'll take your life. (44)

The only way that I have discovered to help me deal with the things that lead to anger is to live daily in full surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. When I do, then when I hear criticism, my response is not self-justification but the realization that often a critical spirit comes from that person's pain and has nothing to do with me. When I live in surrender to Christ, I can release my need to be right, trusting God, who knows my heart, to validate my ministry. When I am fully surrendered to Christ, my value and esteem are found in Him and not in whether my board thinks I am doing a good job. So the next time you deal with what H. B. London calls a "joy-sucker," maybe your focus should not be on why you are angry but rather why you are fearful. What fear is standing in the way of loving those who hurt and frustrate us with God's perfect love? (48)

Am I honestly evaluating the congruity between who I know I am and who I seem to be in the eyes of others? (54)

The way we respond to failure says a lot about us. (59)

1. If it's time to move on, there is probably another opportunity for service awaiting me...


2. The potential move needs to seem "good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28)...


3. There needs to be time and dialogue between pastor and people before a change like this takes place...


4. I concluded that my default answer to congregations that try to call me to another assignment needs to be "No, thank you. I already have an assignment." (61-62)

Sometimes, when people don't like our preaching it's because we're not doing a very good job of it. There are other times, however, when people don't like our preaching because the truth of God's word cuts across their compromised lives. (63)

We can become so consumed with chronos time that we totally miss the kairos of what God would like to do for us. (67).

First I ask myself, "Who is this criticizer?" Is this a person who habitually finds something to complain about? Or is this a person who speaks criticism judiciously? That doesn't mean I can always dismiss the words of the habitual criticizer, but it does begin to help me hear the criticism more objectively. Second, I ask myself, "What about this criticism is true?" Even in the most outrageous of allegations there can be an element of truth that I need to hear. Third, I often ask someone else for his or her opinion. Obviously the issue of confidentiality needs consideration, but I generally run the criticism by my spouse, a staff member, a pastor-friend, or even a trusted layperson. Very often just repeating it aloud brings the resolution of my feelings and a new perspective on the issue. Sometimes criticism comes from ornery people. Sometimes it comes from people who love us and want the best for us. What we do not have in pastoral ministry is the luxury of dismissing the ranting of ornery people. God uses ornery people to get my attention. He uses their criticism to remind me that I must do this job with humility and with absolute dependence on Him. He also reminds me that I do not have an option when it comes to loving those who are hard to love. And nothing teaches love faster than the challenge of loving a cantankerous saint. (70)

We must be very specific with our people about the response the Bible is calling for. It's not enough to lay out a flawless explication of God's answer for the human dilemma without taking the next step and intentionally calling our people to some kind of specific response...Our people should leave every sermon with a clear understanding of how they could respond to the truth proclaimed. If we only preach the truth and do not find ways to hold our people accountable for response, we are doing less than our full pastoral work. Only the Holy Spirit can fully accomplish this task, but we are to be His instruments in helping our people to overcome their low information/action ratio. (72)

We must be diligent to keep the focus that in worship God is both the object and the subject. We usually get one of those but not the other...Pastor, one of the most important things you can ever do in your congregation is to remind them week after week that worship is about God, not us. Say it, model it, plane the service to be faithful to it--this is all for God. (74)

Over time, the identity and health of a congregation can be shaped through the act of pastoral blessing...As pastors, we have a great privilege and responsibility to remind them of who they really are in Christ. We can speak words to them that call them to reckon their lives according to the values of the kingdom of God rather than the kingdoms of this world. Of course, benediction is not the only way to give pastoral blessing to people. We also do it in conversation with a person who is hurting. We do it when we kneel down to listen to the question of a child. It happens as we press the oil of anointing on the foreheads of those who have come for the prayer of healing. There are many ways to offer the blessing, but none is better than speaking words of grace and peace to our people who have gather for worship. It may not seem on the surface like a very important act. I would suggest, however, that your people long for this kind of blessing from their pastor even if they wouldn't know how to name it. (79-80)

At our best, we should affirm these commitments with regard to the place of children in the Church of Jesus Christ:

• We believe that the Church is an intergenerational community of believers gathered for worship, witness, nurture, service, and fellowship.


• We are committed to organize the life of the Church in ways that facilitate intergenerational participation and especially the nurturing of children toward becoming committed disciples of Jesus Christ.


• We are also committed to provide age-specific and age-appropriate experiences that help the larger purposes of the kingdom of God to be taught, understood, and embraced. (83)

Being a pastor is about presence. I am Christ's representative, a sign of the presence of Jesus in the lives of people I have been called to care for. I don't want to be late for the appointment! I want to show up and be present to listen to, love, and guide these precious folks God has entrusted to me. (88)

Location, parking, appearance of the facility--they are important matters to think about. But our primary concern must always be with what the people receive when they get in. If we are taking care to prepare solid, healthy, satisfying worship services, if people are being adequately fed, they will be back. Why? Because people are hungry. They are hungry for what is true and pure. They are hungry to experience the presence of God. If people regularly experience the power of the Spirit of God in your church, they'll put up with a lot of poor signs and cramped parking lots in order to be there. (90)

10 Traits of Effective Leaders: Self-knowledge...Open to feedback...Eager to learn and improve...Curious, risk-takers...Concentrate at work...Learn from adversity...Balance tradition and change...Open style...Work well with systems...Serve as model and mentors (91-92)

People cannot deal effectively with their sexual struggles alone. Yet people will not deal honestly and openly with their sexual struggles unless and until there is created in the Church an atmosphere of grace, understanding, forgiveness, nonjudgmentalism, and healing. (93)