The Broad understanding of Pastoral

Leadership
 The word “pastoral” indicates that it has to do with the duties and work of a man who
fills the office of pastor in a church.
 The precise definition of the term ‘pastoral’ is open to considerable debate. Some, for
example, claim simply that ‘Pastoral care is that aspect of the ministry of the Church
which is concerned with the well-being of individuals and communities.’
 Another definition which has been widely adopted by contemporary writers on the
subject is that of Clebsch ans Jaekle in Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective.
 According to them pastoral care is “directed towards the healing, sustaining, guiding,
and reconciling of troubled persons whose troubles arise in the context of ultimate
meanings and concerns.” Each of these definitions helps bring focus upon the role of
pastoral leaders.
Clebsch, William A. and Jaekle, Charles R, Pastoral Care in a
Historical Perspective (New York: Aronson, 1975), 13.
A. “Pastoral leadership” biblically
1. Biblical leadership is a quality God is seeking to use to accomplish His purpose at critical
times in history. The Old Testament history shows that men like Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah,
and Nehemiah, were spiritual leaders God used in their generations to accomplish God’s
work.
2. Biblical leadership does not require infallibility of the leaders. On the contrary, almost all of
the leaders whose lives were recorded in the Bible have failures in one way or another. But
they were not defeated by their failures. They learned from their mistakes and rose up again
victoriously.
3. Biblical leadership is invested with spiritual power and authority.
The biblical leaders were given by God the authority to exercise in
regard to spiritual matters. For example, Elijah exercised his spiritual
authority over King Ahab, and Nathan used his prophetic authority to
convict David of the adultery he committed. “Authority in leadership is a
spiritual principle. The Christian leader should not be afraid to use it
wisely.
4. Biblical leadership demands higher moral and spiritual standards. Jesus
demonstrated a blameless life.
 In pastoral leadership a leader’s life and how he lives is
more important than any other abilities or skills he may
have.
 A secular leader, may live an immoral life and still
function as an influential leader, but not as a pastoral
leader.
 One cannot expect a pastoral leader to be perfect, but he
must not defile himself morally or ethically either.
 It is important that words and deeds of the pastoral leader
give evidence of a life being transformed by Jesus Christ.
5. Biblical leadership is characterized by willing sacrifice. Jesus said, “For
even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many.”
The trademark of spiritual leaders is that they are willing to sacrifice for the
people they lead and serve. Joshua decided to live among the people for the
sake of winning the war.
Paul suffered much for the sake of preaching the gospel to the lost world
and for benefit of the people he had led to the Lord.
6. Biblical leadership is described as servanthood. The words “leader” and
“leadership” do not appear in the gospels. Jesus saw himself as a servant.
Jesus said to his disciples, “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or
the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among
you as one who serves.” 1Thess. 2:10. Jesus as our example refused the
request of James and John’s mother to seat her sons on His right and left.
6. While leaders have sometimes been called to their
tasks directly by the Lord himself, most often they
arrive at this position only after an extended period
of preparation, trial, and maturing.
7. A leader is one who has a clear sense of the
context that is larger (than himself or his time) than
the significance of the work he has been given to do.
Leadership is not just finishing his own goals, it is
also developing others so they can lead, as it is said,
“the greatest reward a leader can achieve – the
greatest legacy a leader can leave – is a group of
talented, self-confident, and cooperative people,
who are themselves ready to lead.
Pastoral leadership principles.
The Biblical principles of leadership is certainly best modeled by
our Lord Jesus Christ. The following are his principles
[Link] Principle of Service
 When Jesus talked about leadership, He began with
servanthood, which He demonstrated by His own humility.
 Jesus not only taught the disciples to be servants, he himself
demonstrated it at the last supper by washing each and every
one of his disciples’ feet.
 Jesus humbled himself before he was highly exalted by God
the Father. Peter exhorted the young men of his day, “Humble
yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may
lift you up in due time.
2. The Principle of Sacrifice
 Jesus offered himself as a ransom for many. Leadership always
comes with a price, a price to pay for the responsibility that
comes with it.
 The concept of incarnation is not new in Christian thought, but
it is unique in leadership thinking.
 When God became man – Jesus descended from heaven, he
took a giant step to identify himself with the people he was to
lead.
 Jesus sacrificed His prestige, high position of being equal with
God, glory, and many privileges to come down to the earth. He
took upon himself the human form and became a servant.
3. The Principle of Suffering
 When James and John requested the higher positions to sit
next to Jesus on the left and the right, Jesus challenged them
as to whether or not they would drink the bitter cup.
 Jesus had to take up the bitter cup, to suffer for the sake of
his followers and all mankind. It is through suffering that he
reached the top.
 God has “exalted him to the highest place and gave him the
name that is above every name.” Therefore, suffering is part
of the ministry, so it is part of leadership.
4. The Principle of Submission
 At the Garden of Gethsemane, as he faced death on the cross, Jesus
had to struggle like a human being.
 But in the end, he submitted himself to God, and allowed God’s will
to be done.
 He said, “Abba Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup
from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
 Jesus as Son of God could use his power to do whatever he wanted
to do, but he never acted as if he had it all.
 He gave up his Spiritual leadership demands that one not think his
way is the only way. “Submission is not an indication of weakness,
on the contrary, it is the sign of strength.
 To be a leader, one must understand the meaning of submission.
There is a power in the secret of submission. Jesus by submitting
himself to the authority of God, won the world for God.
5. The Principle of Sovereignty
 Sovereignty in terms of God taking the initiative to appoint
leaders. It is not of anyone’s choice, but by God’s
appointment.
 No theological training or leadership course will automatically
confer spiritual leadership or qualify one for an effective
ministry.
 Jesus was later to tell them, “You did not choose me, but I
chose you, and appointed you” (John 15:16). To be able to
affirm, “I am not here by selection of a man or the election of
a group.
 It is clear that spiritual leadership is entrusted not by self-
initiation, but by divine appointment.
 PASTORS’ DUTY IN LOCAL CHURCH
[Link] are congregational leaders.
 Fortunately, pastors are not the only leaders in churches. But they must
provide leadership in the congregation. It goes with the territory.
 In essence, pastoral leadership involves vision and initiative.
 More comprehensively, pastoral leaders see visions of ministry,
communicate the dreams clearly, gain consensus and commitment to
common objectives, take initiative by setting the pace in ministry
actions, and multiply their influence by transforming followers into new
leaders.
 Pastoral leaders differ from church managers. Church managers
conserve and concentrate on doing things right; pastoral leaders create
and focus on doing the right things.
 People are looking for someone to lead them into God’s purposes
God’s way.
 They need leaders who truly believe God will do what He says.
2. Leaders who understand God’s agenda and
know how to move people to it.
 The pastor of a local church has a high calling and awesome
responsibility.
 He must study and teach the Word of God in order to feed the
people. He must know the mind of Christ in order to utter, “Thus
saith the Lord.”
[Link] leader must lead the church to fulfill
Christ’s mission of seeking and saving the
lost
Christian ministry calls on pastors to:
(1) Proclaim the gospel to believers and unbelievers
 By preaching
 By worship
 By evangelizing
 By nurturing
(2) Care for the church members and other persons in the
community through pastoral counseling and visitation as well as
family ministries and grief support.
(3) Lead the church in the achievement of
her mission.
 Planning and management are linked to preaching, evangelism, and
pastoral care.
 In fact, one cannot successfully live without the other. Planning and
management do not hinder the preaching of the gospel, but they
make it easier and more effective.
 The Lord has chosen the church as a means of spreading the
message of salvation to the entire world.
 The pastor must be committed to:
1. Feeding
2. Organizing &
3. Leading
A well-trained group of God’s people to fulfill His will.
 The pastor-teacher mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 carried with it the idea of feeding,
protecting, and expressing concern.
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be
prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be
pastors and teacher,.”
 The pastor is the chief administrator of the local congregation. As such he is responsible
for the over-all actions and results in the work of the church.
 As administrator, it is the pastor’s purpose to lead persons away from the things of the
world and into the high calling in Christ Jesus.
 His responsibility demands that he has a clear understanding of the nature and functions of
the church.
 He needs to develop skill in:
1. Planning,
2. Overseeing &
3. Evaluating the work.
 He should have the ability and the authority to influence the members to make decisions
upon the best interest of the church.
 From the social perspective of the community of faith, Pastoral
leadership involves working in a challenging blending of public
and private settings.
 Participative processes are fundamental to effective pastoral
leadership.
 Congregationally leadership can be used as a lens through which
we can examine
1. Proclamation
2. Caring, and
3. Management.
 Preaching, for instance, provides a prime opportunity for leaders.
In this role, pastors can articulate the congregation’s vision, model
the congregation’s atmosphere and mood, and be example as he
serves them.
 Leadership in congregational settings is:
1. Relational &
2. Interactive in its focus.
 After all, the leader isn’t the only member of the
community.
 There are followers’ preferences and the full range of
ministry demands and circumstances to consider.
 Leadership isn’t exercised in isolation. Leaders and
followers relate to one another; leaders and situations
interact.
Paul’s pastoral Leadership attributes:
(1 Tim 3:1-6).
1. Desire to do it
2. Sound family life
3. Good interpersonal skills and relationships
4. High moral integrity
5. A demonstrated willingness to serve others
6. An ability to teach, and
7. Maturity in the faith
Besides the qualifications listed above, a few practical issues also
affect one’s ability to function effectively as a pastoral leader.
The Disciplines of Pastor’s Life
 Pastoral leadership is spiritual leadership.
 As a student is not above his teacher
 So believer’s spiritual walk with the Lord cannot rise above
the one who leads him.
 The pastoral leader’s spiritual and social disciplines are
essential qualities for effectively leading others.
 Thus it is well said that the church’s spirituality cannot exceed
that of the Pastor who is leading.
1. The Habit of Reading.
 Dr. Sanders devoted a whole chapter in his book Spiritual Leadership on
the leader and his reading.
 Jesus the model leader has a habit of reading as Luke records, “He went
to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he
went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up and read”.
 The context of this verse seems to speak about Jesus being accustomed to
going to the synagogue, but it could also imply that every time he went to
the synagogue, he read the Scriptures.
 Pastors should diligently and daily study the Word of God for which there
is no substitute.
 The man who desires to grow spiritually and intellectually will be
constantly read.
2. The Habit of Praying.
 Much has been written about prayer. It is also a constant subject of
sermons, yet it is one of the least practiced areas of spiritual
discipline.
 To neglect prayer is to forfeit the spiritual source of power and the
privilege of walking with God.
 Prayer propels us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the
spiritual disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us
into perpetual communion with the Father.
 Jesus had the habit of praying. Before he chose the twelve
apostles, “. . . Jesus went out to a mountain side to pray, and spent
the night praying to God
Luke 6:12; Lk 9:18; Lk11:1
[Link] habit of being Transparent.
The leader’s life is in the public eye. Only when he is
willing to open up will he be to live, because it is
impossible to live a hidden life and be identified by the
people.
4. Be Honest.
People do not care about how the leader acts. They do
care if the leader’s action is in correspondence to his
words. People care more about who the leaders are than
what the leaders do.
[Link] humble.
The Bible is very clear on this point. “God opposes the proud, but gives
grace to the humble.”
Peter exhorts, “Humble yourselves, therefore under God’s mighty hand, that
he may lift you up in due time.”
According to God’s Word, humility is a sure way to exaltation. The pastoral
leaders must have a servant spirit to earn respect and be effective. James
4:6; 1 Peter 5:6; Matthew 5:37.
6. Being true.
Truthfulness builds trust and credibility. When the leaders cannot earn the
trust from the people, they lose all their ability to lead.
So the leaders must be true to his feelings, even if they are unpleasant
sometimes. He must be true to his words. His “yes” must mean “yes” and
“no” must mean “no”. “Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
[Link] oneself.
 Do not pretend to be what one is not. People will
accept a leader for who he is if he lives as he is.
 Some leaders want to be popular and need the
acceptance of others, so they may work hard to put on
a mask or act like someone else.
 That does not in the long run. Be oneself and live.
Utilize your potential for the ministry God has
entrusted you.
 The Qualifications of Pastoral Leadership
• Based on 1 Timothy 3:2-7, the qualifications for biblical leadership
can be divided into four areas: personal, family, spiritual and social.
1. Qualifications of Personal Life
A leader is the sum of how he lives. Paul noticed the importance of
this concept, and he listed these qualities:
Above reproach. Paul said in 1 Tim 3:2, “the overseer must be above
reproach.”
A leader must be blameless. Blameless in the sense that no one can
accuse him of any wrong doing.
The leader must be a model of godliness so he can legitimately call his
congregation to follow his example (Phil. 3:17).
Self-controlled.
 The Greek word means “without wine” or “not intoxicated with wine.”
 It means under control. It refers to mental, behavioral, and spiritual
soberness.
Sound in mind.
 The Greek word means “soundness of mind”, “sober-minded”, or
“prudent”.
 It “means to be balanced, restrained, and controlled because of sound
judgment.
Respectable.
 The word means “orderly.” It describes a personal orderliness in
outward demeanor and dress, as well as his life style.
 For a pastoral leader to be respectable, one must show dignity and
orderliness in his behavior.
Hospitable.
 The Scriptures are full of teaching on hospitality. Hebrews 13:2
says;
 “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some
people have entertained angels without knowing it.”
 Paul encouraged Christians to “practice hospitality.” Job 31:32
described Job’s hospitable spirit, “but no stranger had to spend
the night in the street, for my door was always open to the
traveler . . .”
 Pastoral leaders must not only have an open heart, but also an
open door.
 A man who does not practice hospitality cannot be a pastoral
leader.
Able to teach.
 It means “skillful in teaching”.
 The responsibility of teaching involves that “he must hold
firmly to the trustworthy teaching.
 This mean to teach what the church is teaching in her
revealed understanding.
 Able to teach does not necessarily mean eloquence.
 It does mean ability to instruct people in the Word and to
protect the church from false teachings.
Not given to drunkenness.
 Drinking was not altogether prohibited in first century
Christianity.
 What Paul was saying was that a pastoral leader should not be
addicted to, or controlled by, or abuse wine.
 Any chemical that would destruct the testimony of a pastoral
leader should be guarded against carefully.
Not violent.
The Greek word is derived from the verb, “to strike.” It could be
understood to mean “a violent man.”
Gentle.
 This is a direct opposite to violence.
 The pastoral leader must possess this quality which is the very
characteristic of God who is good and ready to forgive.
 Gentleness was also evident in the life of Jesus while he was
here on earth.
Not quarrelsome.
 The Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind
to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that
God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge
of the truth”
Not a lover of money.
Christians should not be “the love of money.”
The lust of money has brought many Christian
leaders to their downfall in recent years.
It is a strong biblical warning that pastoral leaders
stay away from the greed of financial gain.
 2. Qualifications of Family Life
• The pastoral leadership’s family life is just as
important as his personal life.
• Since pastoral leaders are constantly in the public eye,
and they are the teachers of how one should live as
God’s people, they have no escape from being
examples to God’s flock.
Husband and Wife relationship.
• “Husband of one wife,” His relationship with his wife
must be exclusive.
Father and Son/Daughter relationship.
 It is well said that if one cannot manage his own
household, he cannot manage the church.
 A pastoral leader’s ability to lead the church is affirmed
by his ability to manage his home.
 Therefore a pastoral leader must be a strong spiritual
leader in the home before he is qualified to lead the
church.
 The pastoral leader’s relationship with his children are
emphasized in the following two areas:
The relationship with children is emphasized in the
following two areas:
Children obey him with proper respect.
Their attitude and action toward him must be respectful,
under control, and disciplined.
Children who believe.
The children are proof of the message he preaches or
teaches.
If the children are not believers that will weaken the
pastoral leader’s ability to convince others.
3. Qualifications of Spiritual Life
Not a Recent Convert.
 Spiritual maturity is required is for pastoral leadership.
 And spiritual maturity requires time and experiences.
 Spiritual maturity cannot be substituted by any thing else or be
achieved by taking any shortcuts.
 Therefore, the Scriptures warn that “he must not be a recent convert” (1
Timothy 3:6).
4. Qualification of Social Life
A Good Reputation with Outsiders.
 To live well among Christians is expected of any believer.
 To live well among non-Christians is also required of pastoral leaders.
 Christians are to be witnesses for Christ before the watching world.