Ephesians 4:11 – 16 is pretty clear as to what is the job description of a pastor. Most pastors I know do not follow it. I have said multiple times in multiple venues and to multiple pastors that they must have had that portion of Ephesians surgically removed from their Bibles. All have agreed with me that by the job description of their church, the expectation of their congregations, and their training they are not equipped to do what Ephesians 4:11 – 16 commands.
If you look at a bulletin for most churches who teaches most of the Sunday school classes? In my experience it is the staff. At one time at the church I attend all of the classes were taught by staff, and the staff were also leading small groups and teaching different classes on Wednesday night.
The purpose of leadership in the Body described in Ephesians 4:11 – 16 is to “equip the saints for the work of service.” That does not mean stand behind a lectern or pulpit and speak. Well if one asks some in the church that is what it does mean. But if one walks outside the doors of the church the meaning of that word radically changes or better reverts to what people normally think of when contemplating equipping.
What company would place confidence in an engineer who sat in a lecture once a week for 20 – 45 minutes with no notion of measuring what that engineer retained. But that is what most churches will present as equipping. Well to be fair there is the hour of Sunday school. After prayer requests and admin there is another 20 – 30 minutes of lecture, unprepared reaction to a passage, or unprepared discussion of a topic again without any measurement of retention or comprehension. Oh by the way, if the staff is not leading the Sunday school class, the leader is a product of the “equipping” we have described.
I was an instructor pilot in the USAF. Student Pilots had to go through extensive classes in aircraft systems and navigation there were tests that had to be passed. On the flight line, students had to spend hours watching and responding correctly to presentations in a learning center. There were tests on emergency procedures where at passing grade was 100%. A student was not allowed to fly solo before an instructor flew with him for several hours and was convinced he could navigate and land safely within a controlled area. Pick a profession. The training for that profession will, at some level, mirror that of pilots. Instruction, observation, and critiques of performance with the expectation that the critique will be applied or the student will fail in the pursuit of accreditation in that discipline.
If we were to follow most church’s equipping model in flight school we would lecture once a week for 40 minutes, hand the student a Dash 1, show them the flight line, and tell them to go fly the plane. We would need more students in the pipeline.
I know of only one pastor who is actually equipping Biblically. He had to do that on his own time, off book. He began to meet with men at his church and now those men are in leadership and supporting his ministry of meeting with men and developing them intentionally. But it took a paradigm shift in the church.
Until his example is followed in churches throughout the world. The church will continue to produce anemic and ineffective saints.
If you look at a bulletin for most churches who teaches most of the Sunday school classes? In my experience it is the staff. At one time at the church I attend all of the classes were taught by staff, and the staff were also leading small groups and teaching different classes on Wednesday night.
The purpose of leadership in the Body described in Ephesians 4:11 – 16 is to “equip the saints for the work of service.” That does not mean stand behind a lectern or pulpit and speak. Well if one asks some in the church that is what it does mean. But if one walks outside the doors of the church the meaning of that word radically changes or better reverts to what people normally think of when contemplating equipping.
What company would place confidence in an engineer who sat in a lecture once a week for 20 – 45 minutes with no notion of measuring what that engineer retained. But that is what most churches will present as equipping. Well to be fair there is the hour of Sunday school. After prayer requests and admin there is another 20 – 30 minutes of lecture, unprepared reaction to a passage, or unprepared discussion of a topic again without any measurement of retention or comprehension. Oh by the way, if the staff is not leading the Sunday school class, the leader is a product of the “equipping” we have described.
I was an instructor pilot in the USAF. Student Pilots had to go through extensive classes in aircraft systems and navigation there were tests that had to be passed. On the flight line, students had to spend hours watching and responding correctly to presentations in a learning center. There were tests on emergency procedures where at passing grade was 100%. A student was not allowed to fly solo before an instructor flew with him for several hours and was convinced he could navigate and land safely within a controlled area. Pick a profession. The training for that profession will, at some level, mirror that of pilots. Instruction, observation, and critiques of performance with the expectation that the critique will be applied or the student will fail in the pursuit of accreditation in that discipline.
If we were to follow most church’s equipping model in flight school we would lecture once a week for 40 minutes, hand the student a Dash 1, show them the flight line, and tell them to go fly the plane. We would need more students in the pipeline.
I know of only one pastor who is actually equipping Biblically. He had to do that on his own time, off book. He began to meet with men at his church and now those men are in leadership and supporting his ministry of meeting with men and developing them intentionally. But it took a paradigm shift in the church.
Until his example is followed in churches throughout the world. The church will continue to produce anemic and ineffective saints.
