Rev Bill

Alan Nelson at Rev Magazine has developed a 10 point continuum on pastoral leadership.

He begins his series on this continuum with this statement:

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.

He then begins describing a ten point continuum (he will have 5 posts describing them all) on different styles of pastoral leadership — with 10 representing what he considers the most equipping style.

The 2 he discusses today are:

1. Emperor Pastor. Nelson writes: “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. This kind of pastor tends to be in a church with less than 10 percent of the active attendees involved in an ongoing ministry role. ”

What scares me is that I see a lot of myself in the description he gives — wanting to be available for the people, etc.

2. Controller Pastor Nelson writes: “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. The Controller functions much the same as the Emperor, but the attitude is a bit less “milk toast” or doormat and more possessive and self-centered.”

I’ll keep you posted on this series — but for new you can read more about the Emperor Pastor and the Controller Pastor here

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