In all of my years studying and leading churches the changing role of the pastor and the laity within the local church is probably one of the most misunderstood and potentially damaging issues facing the church. The biblical model is incredibly clear, the pastor is God’s gift to the church and his role is to lead the church by equipping the laity to do the work of the ministry.
Tragically in most small churches the laity hires a pastor to do the work of the ministry and they run the church. The pastor is to preach, visit, counsel, attend meetings, conduct funerals and weddings and the people once a month conduct the business of the church.
As the church starts to grow additional staff is hired and the old culture begins to be threatened. Now the pastor is expected to do everything he has always done and manage an ever growing staff and minister to an even larger number of people. New buildings are being built and the financial administration becomes complicated.
Many pastors hit the wall at this point because they are not gifted to make the transition from shepherd of the flock to leader of the people. The expectation level of the people has not changed and they are simply left with more work and all the issues that come with personnel problems.
The major reason though these changes do not occur is not because the pastor cannot change his leadership style but the people are not willing to delegate control to staff and lay leaders and assume their God given role of ministry responsibility.
When a church reaches over three hundred the pastor cannot continue to visit every member in the hospital and every member of the church does not need to be involved in picking the paint color for the kitchen renovation. These transitions of roles will continue to occur every time you reach an additional five hundred people or the church will simply stop growing.
There are a lot of legitimate and complicated reasons people are not being reached for Christ. This should not be one of them.