Has your boss ever asked you to do anything that is “out of your scope”? In other words, something that isn’t in your job description? If there’s anything that I’ve learned over my short pastoral career, it’s that when you become a pastor, people expect EVERYTHING to be in your job description. Now, there’s nothing wrong with stretching yourself, or wearing many different kinds of hats, but sometimes this can stretch a pastor too thin. In many traditional models of church leadership pastors burn out very quickly. This is because they do everything within the church. Printing, copying, studying, preparing messages, counseling, teaching, visiting, performing weddings, funerals, etc. None of these are “out of the job description” for a pastor necessarily, but expecting one or two people to be able to do everything within a church is ridiculous. In my new role of executive pastor I’ve been given the task of making sure that everything is ready for Sunday mornings, and for the church to grow and become what it should be. Without having people to work with, I could never get all of this accomplished. If I had to put the music together, rehearse it and perform it (for one thing, it would be awful), it would never get done. If I had to prepare the children’s church message, puppet skits and organize children’s church meetings every week, I’d kill myself. The point is simply that pastors can’t be pastors without other people within the church doing what God has called them to do. How can we “oversee” the functioning of the church if we are doing all the functioning?

If you are a church leader, how do you find the skills and abilities of those within your body and plug them into the operation of the church on a weekly basis? How do you keep them on task and purpose? If we all share our insights, we can focus more time on what matters: people.

A big thanks to all those at LifePoint who make my job easier by doing what God has called them to do!

Some small-time pastor named Craig Groeschel put up a post on his blog Swerve about the same subject. You should check it out.