What's a pastor to do?

Over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that people really, really want strong leadership until they get it. There truly is a dearth of leadership in the church today and the sheep are right to cry out for strong leadership.

However, the sheep often define a strong leader as "someone who strongly agrees with me." I thought of this when I read Adrian Warnock's post: Please Pray for the Preachers. Here's a few excerpts.

I recently heard Greg Haslam of Westminster chapel say that as Christians we are left here on earth to cause trouble, to destabilise things.

I suppose that is especially true of preachers. According to Greg the task of the preacher is to tell both the church and the world what neither of them want to hear!

And:

A preacher’s job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and knowing that you may unsettle your congregation, you are very aware of your need of God to help you in doing so in the right way.

He hits the nail on the head with those thoughts. The pastor's job is to spur the flock on to spiritual growth. An individual and a congregation can't grow if all they hear is what they already believe and agree with. Within the bounds of orthodoxy a pastor has to preach things that will "prick the ears" of the congregation and will cause them to be wrestle with matters and be uncomfortable.

Thomas Chalmers said that a pastor should always be preaching just over the head of his congregation He can't preach so high above the heads that they can't grasp what he is saying, but he has to preach far enough over the heads of the congregation to make them stretch.

Furthermore, sin is the thing that prevents our spiritual growth. So, the pastor has a responsibility to confront the sin that is present in his congregation at the time. As a practical example, consider what would happen if I were to preach on Romans 1 with my congregation. That has become a standard text that evangelicals wield against homosexual practice and its a standard text that Chistians wield to show the depravity of the unregenerate.

In my church there are very few who are unregenerate, or at least very few who would acknowledge they are unregenerate. And, since we're a middle class, conservative evangelical church homosexuality is one of the sins least likely to be present in our congregation. There's probably one or two who struggle with it in silence, but for the most part, homosexuals aren't beating down the doors to get into conservatie evangelical churches.

As a pastor I can get lots of amens if I preach about the depravity of the unregenerate and against homosexuality from Romans 1, and I could probably get a lot of "good sermon pastor's" at the door. But those are not the things my congregation needs to hear about. We may not have many unregenerate or homosexuals in the congregation but I bet we've got lots of gossips and kids who are disobedient to parents. So, if I am to do my job as pastor I need to address those things chiefly.

As Adrian says, pastors are disruptive. This is because Jesus was disruptive. Jesus overhauls lives, He ruins careers, He breaks up families - He is not a tame lion. If pastors are to do their job, their will be a disruptive element to their ministry. So, pray for your pastors that they will have the courage to do what God calls them to do, and don't assume that your life won't get disrupted.