I just found the first installment of a series that has great potential. While it is written for pastors, I think it is a good taxonomy for any church leader. Below are some excerpts, for more detail see the link at the bottom. Through my 20 years of ministry I can sadly say that I have been guilty of many of these and have seen others in colleagues.
Me to We Series...
The term equip means different things to different people. Most pastors believe they "equip" (Ephesians 4) because they preach the gifts of the Spirit and support the priesthood of believers--and seek more volunteers. But I'd like to offer you a better way to assess where you and your church are in terms of the equipping value. This is #1 of a five-part mini-series that charts the degrees of equipping on a 10-point continuum where 10 represents the point of highest value.
Point 1: Emperor Pastor -- Point 1 is at the lowest end of the equipping continuum. This pastor functions as the pastor, striving to be all things to all people. He or she is the ultimate server, schooled and trained to do whatever it takes to carry out acts of service for people.
Although the Emperor Pastor can have a wonderful heart, a servant's attitude, and be fully committed, quite often there exists some degree of emotional baggage or self-image issue that causes the pastor to try to be all things to all people. Most pastors in this category go to bed with their cell phones or beepers on in case someone needs to get hold of them. They're available 24/7 and even make this one of their bragging rights. The problem is that this sort of codependent mind-set rewards enabling behavior from the church members, who applaud their pastor's efforts to "be there for them."
The problem is that most people are intentionally or unintentionally kept out of ministry and prevented from using their gifts because of the culture this type of pastor perpetuates.
Point 2: Controller Pastor -- The Controller Pastor is open to letting others be involved in a role of service, so long as it's one of support to his or her ministry.
Sometimes slightly more people are involved in acts of service, but the pastor sees them as ministry pawns and recruits them to do the "little jobs" around the church.
There's only room for one key leader.
The result of Emperor or Controller pastoring styles is limited spiritual growth because people fail to use their gifts in ministry and to receive significant ministry through others' gifts.
For an Empowering Continuum assessment, go to www.rev.org and click on Me to We resources, and then "The Empowering Church Assessment." In next week's edition of LeadingIdeas, we'll discuss Points 3 and 4, the Promoter and the Recruiter.
Alan
Alan Nelson is the executive editor of Rev! Magazine, the author
