What I wish I would have known before I became a pastor in this subsection of effective pastoral leadership is this. Excellent systems and processes are essential to healthy leadership. Excellent systems and processes are essential to healthy leadership. Let me pause here. Some of you are hiding behind your fear of disorganization and you couch it in spirituality.
Man, the Holy Spirit will do it. So. So yes, the Holy Spirit will do it. But let’s keep this in mind that when the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created the universe, you had the solar system in your body. You have the circulatory system.
Think about it. If you didn’t have stop signs, if you didn’t have processes, if you didn’t have traffic, things to help with traffic. So in the local church, we should be organized with systems and processes. That is a part of the Holy Spirit, that is a part of shepherding. So don’t hide behind your disorganization saying, hey, I’m just going with the Spirit’s power.
No, the Holy Spirit will help you be organized. It’s called self control. And remember, you’re helping people and guiding them somewhere. Listen to Exodus 18:17-23. Moses was just used by God to deliver the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
It was awesome. It was epic. And he comes to his father in law, Jethro. And watch how
Jethro lovingly challenges him. This is not good.
Moses, Moses, Father explained you’re going to wear yourself out and the people too. When you’re not organized, you’re going to wear yourself out and the people too. The job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself. Listen, you’re not Jesus and neither am I. So get over yourself, Leader.
You trying to do everything. You’re a control freak. Birth and fear. Perfect love casts out all fear, see 1 John 4:18, 2 Timothy 1:7.
The Lord has not given you a spirit of fear, but of sound mind, love and discipline. You feel what I’m saying? All right, so we need teamwork, makes the dream work. We need systems and processes. Verse 19.
Now listen to me and let me give you a word of advice. And may God be with you. You should continue to be the people’s representative before God, bringing their disputes to him. Teach them God’s decrees and give them his instructions. Show them how to conduct their lives.
But select from all the people some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Interesting. Appoint them as leaders over groups of 11, 50 and 10. They should always be available to solve people’s common disputes. But have them bring the major cases to you.
Let the leaders decide the smallest matters themselves. They will help you carry the load, making the task easier for you. If you follow this advice and if God commands you to do so, then you will be able to endure the pressures. You hear what I’m saying? If you’re.
Listen. If you are a young leader and you think preaching is making cool IG reels and TikToks, that’s ridiculous. All right? That is not what being a leader. You’re not an influencer.
You’re a shepherd. Shepherd smell like sheep. And there is pressure. There’s a lot of it. So if you’re not ready for pressure, if you think that being a pastor is just getting a book deal and speaking at conferences, please, please don’t do it.
Because you’re going to hurt people, you’re going to hurt your family, you’re going to hurt yourself and you’re going to dishonor God and blow up. There is pressure involved. This is a spiritual battle and all these people will go home in peace. So systems and processes matter. You can learn about it, you can study it, you can accomplish it with the right team around you.
Number three, Effective pastoral leadership in this three part series called what I Wished I Would have Known Before I Became a Pastor. Number three. Expect resistance to change. Expect resistance to change. Let me say one more time, expect resistance to change.
One of the reasons why you are the leader is because you’re leading people into places they haven’t seen nor experienced yet. And when that happens, expect resistance and a form of sabotage. Not because there’s ill will intent. Sometimes there is, but most of the time people are afraid of losing a few things. They’re afraid of losing power, they’re afraid of losing status, and they’re afraid of what they have not experienced before.
And as a leader, we’re to help people move past their fear, but expect change. Todd Bolzinger in his book Tempered resilience on page 18 and 19 says this groups are hardwired to believe that survival usually means reinforcing the way things have always been. So when an organization feels stress, the default behavior of most organizational leaders is to solve the problems of our organizations rather than change our organizations from meeting the needs of the world. The result is that instead of undergoing transformation to be more effective in our mission to serve the world, organizations consciously reinforce the various status quo that is not working. So as a leader, when you are experiencing resistance, it requires what Bolzinger says is a tempered resilience.
A tempered, resilient leader is one that is grounded, teachable, attuned, adaptable and tenacious. And all of that can be done in the beauty and the power of the Holy Spirit. What I wish I would have known before I became a pastor. The first subset of this three-part series is effective pastoral leadership. 1.
Leading and serving a church is more than preaching. 2. Excellent systems and processes are essential to healthy leadership. 3. Expect resistance to change.
Lastly, God is gracious, God is kind, and God himself is the one who called you. The one who called you is the one who seated you. And the one who seated you is the one who lives through you. Jesus gave his life for you, to give his life to you, to live his life through you. And you can be the servant leader he’s called you to be.
Why? Because the ultimate servant leader lives in you. Hey, I’m Pastor Derwin. When the church is transformed, the world will be transformed.
