TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PASTORAL LEADERSHIP Paul D Borden

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PASTORAL LEADERSHIP Paul D. Borden

NORTH AMERICA 1. 80% to 85% of congregations are on a plateau or in decline 2. The average congregation ranges between 75 -124 3. Church attendance is on a decline

NORTH AMERICA 4. The Number of Protestants is in decline 5. The net loss of congregations weekly is almost 40 6. North America has the third largest secular population in the world 7. More and more people are attending fewer congregations

SOME REASONS FOR THE CURRENT STATE OF THE CHURCH

NORTH AMERICA 1. A consumer oriented culture that says the church is primarily for believers 2. This consumer mentality affects the Church’s: Purpose (Mission) Vision Morale Faith

NORTH AMERICA A Theology of Smallness that: Validates our current situation Makes us feel better about ourselves and our ministries

NORTH AMERICA A Therapeutic Culture that: Preaches Sentimentality Honors the dysfunctional over the healthy

NORTH AMERICA An unbiblical devaluation of leadership that results in: Congregations designed to be small Call trumping gifting Fear of leadership Leaders replaced by care givers

SOME assumptions

SOME assumptions 1. God expects His Church to grow. 2. Congregations not growing through evangelism are disobedient. 3. Healthy congregations will be growing ones.

SOME assumptions 4. Pastors who are unwilling to lead need to re-consider their calling. 5. Leadership is earned, not given automatically. 6. Leadership can be learned.

SOME assumptions 7. Developing as a leader, for those without the gift, does not happen without the help of other leaders (mentors, coaches, etc).

A Theology of Mission

A Theology of Mission 1. God is a missionary God. 2. He picked Israel to bless so they would bless the nations. 3. Israel failed in its mission. 4. Jesus came to build His church to continue the mission.

A Theology of Mission 5. The purpose of the Church is to frustrate the Evil One. 6. The Church is to build from all nations a people for God. 7. God’s goal: one day people from all over the world will stand before Him.

A Theology of Mission 8. The implications of this theology: (1) The primary role of the Church is missional. (2) Pastors are constantly working cross-culturally and are therefore missionaries.

Requirements for leadership I am taking Leith Anderson’s concept of leadership as the working definition for this presentation. Leadership is seeing a need and working to get that need met.

Requirements for leadership 1. I believe the number one requirement for leadership in the Church today is passion. The pastor: • has a passion for Jesus Christ, the Gospel, and reaching lost people. • works with a continual sense of urgency

Requirements for leadership 2. The second requirement is courage. • • leading a consumer oriented congregation to become missional does not come without deep pain. In fact if the leader is not willing to lose his/her position for the mission, the mission will probably not be implemented.

Requirements for leadership Passion begins with a prophetic sense of “burden” that creates a fire in the belly that cannot be quenched.

Requirements for leadership 3. The third requirement is wisdom. Wisdom means • • I know myself I will become a continual learner I know what I cannot do & will marshal the resources get it accomplished. I understand the role & job that needs to be done. There’s no one more dangerous than a passionate courageous fool.

Requirements for leadership 4. The fourth requirement is that I am positive. • • I believe that we are going to win because we work for the right person. I understand that in today’s environment people are motivated to serve and work on the basis of compassion not compulsion.

Requirements for leadership 5. Finally … I am willing to take responsibility for what happens and not blame others if it fails. If a ministry fails it is because of: The environment – This is a missionary issue Lack of commitment – This is a vision issue Spiritual one – This is a denial issue However, these are all leadership issues!!!

The Pastor Leader’s New Job Description

The Pastor Leader’s New Job Description 1. The pastor is the spiritual leader of the congregation, which means: • Communicating the Word of God well • Calling the congregation to spiritual disciplines, individually & collectively • Protecting God’s reputation in the conduct of congregational ministry

The Pastor Leader’s New Job Description 2. The pastor is to minister crossculturally as a missionary, which means: • Focusing the congregation on the Mission • Leading the congregation to focus on others • Helping the congregation target the community

The Pastor Leader’s New Job Description 2. The pastor is to minister crossculturally as a missionary, which means: • Creating urgency and casting vision continually • • • Letting people feel the need Focusing on a changed community Telling stories, stories Speaking positively Addressing what the group can do

The Pastor Leader’s New Job Description 3. The pastor develops leaders which, means developing leaders in the: • Staff to help them develop leaders • Board to help them develop leaders • Congregation who will develop leaders

The Pastor Leader’s New Job Description 4. While the pastor is creating this new job description the pastor must: make sure that the normal roles and expectations are met until the congregation has learned new expectations for the pastor’s role.

Lessons from Peter Drucker

Lessons From Peter Drucker 1. The mission comes first and for the church the mission is changed lives. 2. The function of management is to make the church more church-like, not more business-like.

Lessons From Peter Drucker 3. An organization begins to die the day it begins to be run for the benefit of the insiders not for the outsiders. 4. Focus on opportunities not problems and as a result fail in accomplishing their mission.

Lessons From Peter Drucker 5. People decisions are the ultimate control mechanism of an organization • how those decisions are made tell the rest of the people what your real values are.

Lessons From Peter Drucker 6. The 3 most important questions for any organization are: • What is our business? • Who is our customer? • What does our customer