The Perfect Pastor

One of my odd pastimes is to peruse the church ads at www.churchstaffing.com. These are much better than singles ads in the local paper because the real meanings are cloaked in spiritual terms. Here is a favorite from a small church in the midwest looking for their next pastor:

Little Rural Church was founded in 1961. We have seen growth and decline during the course of time. We have had two pastors in the last seven years and our attendance has fluctuated between 25 and 60. Currently we are averaging around 30 for Sunday morning worship service, but expectantly hope attendance to increase when the school year starts up again. We belong to the Southern Baptist Convention but you will find very few Baptists amongst our attendees. Actually the non-members easily outnumber the members of our church. We are a family of believers in Jesus Christ who seek to put Him before any denomination. We are seeking a pastor who preaches from the whole Bible (not just bits and pieces and not necessarily KJV), is filled with the Holy Spirit, believes in the power of prayer and encourages corporate prayer, loves people, has a heart for the lost, and can lead this flock to do God's work. The leadership of Little Rural Church yearns for a pastor who will lead, who is not afraid of confrontation, and who is willing to delegate responsibilities to capable members of the flock. If our pastor is married we desire that the pastor’s wife truly have the heart of a “pastor’s wife”, and be actively involved in her husband’s ministry. It would also be advantageous for our pastor if he is familiar with the rural lifestyle.

So what do you read between the lines? Why have 30 people (half) left some time during the last seven years? Perhaps the previous pastor preached from bits and pieces of the Bible? Is there a new wave of reformation sweeping through the church opening the possiblity of truth beyond the KJV? What are we to make of the 16 or more non-Baptists, non-members attending; is this a good thing or a bad thing? Are there members who are currently putting the SBC before Jesus? In looking for a pastor who will "delegate responsibilities to capabIe members of the flock" do we detect a hint that a former pastor may have mistakenly believed he was somehow in charge? Has this flock had a pastor's wife who did not truly have the heart of a "pastors wife"; who was not actively involved in her husband's ministry? Did they have to suffer through some snotty young miss who dared to put her children and husband before the church? Who did not feel led to lead the Women's Ministry? Who did not teach the children's Sunday School class every Sunday? Who did not sing in the choir and who could not PLAY THE PIANO??? Oh, the shame! They yearn for a pastor "who is not afraid of confrontation"; I would contend that the new pastor should be afraid, very afraid.

Comments

[M Burke]

You have the website address wrong, its http://www.noperfectpastor.com
:)

[D. Thomas Owsley]

Liked this blog, and really like your humor.

(Geoff, you might be interested in http://www.noperfectpastor.com. It's promoting a book that's designed to be given to church members.)

Cheers!

[Bill]

Why do you find it okay to knock this rural church for attendance being half of what it reached when you are glorifying the likes of Rick Warren and others whose church "rolls" more than double even triple their weekly attendance? It's not difficult to get people to choose your church when you satisfy the lusts of the flesh and put the word of God on the back burner to cater to life issues.

Rather than taking self-promoting stabs at this small rural church, why don't you pray for them and encourage them to be submissive to God's will for their church? Oh yeah, and rather than writing into a story reasons to be leery of the opportunity, stick to the facts of the case. When people listen to God there is no need for a churchstaffing.com - when they don't a company like that will flourish.

2 Tim. 2:16-18 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth.

[eric bramlett]

Geoff:

I think the scariest thing about this post is the number count - think about how "pastor math" is effecting the range of 25-60, with an "average" of 30. Let's see, factor in pastor math, carry the one...

I'm saying there's a congregation of 12 that hate the old pastor's wife and will pay churchstaffing.com any amount of money to keep cousin Earl from preaching for one more week...

[Todd Rhoades]

Great post, Geoff... I totally agree. So many churches take their past baggage and put it on the new pastor (and his family). One has to be very careful in these situations.

Todd

[Doug]

I'm just wondering how many (of the millions of us who read your blog) are looking over their shoulder, with a terrified shudder, and saying, "Yeah, I used to pastor that church!" Ha! At the risk of being repetitive, let me just say, again, about Seacoast, "Man, I love this church!"