From where I was to where I need to be
Because of the growing number of lay people pastoring, I find I am having to do more and more planning, administrating and supporting and less and less pastoring. But what a joy! Seeing people in significant ministry, and knowing people are being cared for more like God intends, gives great satisfaction and fulfillment. As I see it, there are four phases to my journey:
- Lone Ranger. Doing all the pastoring myself, trying to be a superstar, I neglected many people because of time and energy limitations; I had failed.
- Calling People to Ministry Without Providing Structure. Although I was preaching and teaching the theology of lay ministry (calling people to discover their gifts), I didn’t provide the necessary discipling or providing the necessary structures for them to be able to minister.
- Providing Structures. I began to practice what I was preaching (learning from others). I began to create equipping opportunities and develop structures to follow.
- Continuing to Grow. I have grown in equipping skills and have learned about working with lay people as equals. My journey has been neither rapid nor easy. My former “lone ranger” ministry style gives way stubbornly to the new. I have discovered that I revert to the former style rapidly if I am not careful.
Because of what I am experiencing in this journey, from where I was to where I need to be, I enthusiastically endorse the following four principles formulated by one whom I call a “:super pastor,” Dr. Jerry Kirk, co-pastor of CHPC:
- The pastor must become convinced that equipping lay people is God’s call and priority for his ministry.
- The pastor tastes how wonderful it is to be used by God. He sees what happens when lay people get a taste of God touching another through him.
- The pastor must be sincere in this priority because only then will he be able to convince the congregation that he is not seeking to dodge his responsibilities but to provide better care in the long run.
- The pastor must lead the congregation to give and receive ministry from one another. He models this by receiving ministry from the laity: their prayers, care, counsel, correction and encouragement.●
COMMENTS
in relation to there are four phases
Mosa Longkumer (PIS student) says:
The church grows when we use PACE stands for prayer, Availability, Contact, and Example.
First, we need to pray. Prayer is talking to God and asking for His help. When we prayer, for we ask God to give us opportunities to share His love with others. We pray for courage to share our faith and for others to receive it with open hearts.
Next, we need to be available. This means we need to make time to serve others and share God’s love. We can do this by helping those in need, visiting the sick, or simply being a good friend.
Then, we need to make contact. This means we need to reach out to others and build relationship with, we can do this by attending community events, joining clubs or groups, or volunteering for a cause we care about.
Example. This means we need to live our lives in a way that shows others what it means to follow Jesus. We can do this by being kind, honest, and respectful to others.
So, when you put it all together, it’s pretty simple. A church that’s praying, available, making contact and setting a good example is going to naturally grow. When use PACE, We can help the church grow. We can help others come to know Jesus and experience His love. So let’s remember to pray, be available, make contact, and set a good example. Together, we can make a difference.♥
Byeong, Melvin University, says:
What is the relation to Lay Ministry & pastoral care? I have found this is an interesting relationship. Actually those two are different because lay ministry is just lay ministry as you see, and also pastoral care is just pastoral care. At theological schools, some has lay ministry curriculum, and other school has pastoral care curriculum, of course my precious schools in Canada had this two different sections, but our Lay Pastors Ministry puts together this two different concepts. Of course Dr. Melvin started from lay ministry (Ep. 4:11-12), then moved on the pastoral care, why? He found lay ministry in the church, then what kind of lay ministry, then he matched it with pastoral care, because he found two goals of local church: 1. Evangelizing (Matt. 28:19-20); 2. Pastoral Care (John 21:15-17). Then there are many materials on the first goal (evangelizing) at every church, but he found there was a lack on pastoral care, so he tried to make, develop lay pastoral care ministry for the church, as you see that he puts together lay ministry plus pastoral care. Anyway, we need both, because lay ministry help us to change our mindset. Such as, paradigm shift, without this, our ministry for pastor and laypeople, won’t be effective.
And I found that he was right. Let’s think of the prof. Paul Stevens of Regent College, Vancouver Canada, as we know he is the most prominent theologian and practitioner in the lay ministry over the world. But we find he also talk about lay ministry with pastoral care, he doesn’t say directly but we found from his writings. If we see his book, The Equipper’s Guide to Every-Member Ministry (1992), Chapter 3, “Lay Pastor and Caregivers,” he mentioned three models of lay ministry: Stephen Ministry; Howard Stone’s The Caring Church; and Melvin’s Lay Pastors Ministry.
But coincidentally, these three of them are talking about pastoral care. I know them very well. Stephen Ministry is caring ministry for crisis, once people are in the crisis, Stephen minister visit and care for them. However, when they become ok, Stephen minister took off their hands, but this ministry’s system and materials are very good and excellent, but the problem is too long training, for instance one-week long training, and also too expensive to be trained, comparing to LPM, its very expensive, 200 dollars USD for completion, but LPM is not that expensive to be trained. Anyway, that is caring ministry. Howard Stone’s The Caring Church also talk caring ministry in the church, and LPM/PACE, of course caring ministry, so as we look at, Paul Stevens, even he is specialist on the just lay ministry, stressed on caring ministry, so lay ministry is mostly focused on the caring ministry as we found. Lay Ministry is not Pastoral Care, but as we see it, almost equal level.
So Melvin’s approach and system which he developed is correct and good for the church. Of course he didn’t take out another ministry, evangelizing people is essential, if we look at his second book, Lay Driven Church, we see that. There, he wrote two ministries, “striking a balanced between the Great Commission and the Great Charter (at Contents section), so he agreed church needs two ministries, but he developed the latter, because there are already a lot of materials in the former.■
ADDITIONAL COMMENT
by BYEONG
Two kinds of Motivation: What I’ve been thinking about since my ministry in Korea has been about motivation, and it’s become clear that there are two motivations: whatever ministry it is, strong motivation is needed to “start.” Another is the motivation to “keep up” the ministry.
Of course, there are many books about motivation and theories about it. Pastor Melvin also wrote a short paper titled Motivation. Of course, the essay was about “internal motivation and external motivation.” It’s close to motivation in the beginning stage.
Another one is Dr. Daniel Pink’s book DRIVE, which is written about three levels of motivation: the primitive age, and before post-modern, and after; the first is carrot and stick, and the next is ownership, and now autonomy.
All these books and materials helped me to understand my own motivations. But these theories and books didn’t solve my curiosity, and the motivation which is “to start” now, and the motivation “after” that, were completely different, so these basic theories and materials shouldn’t work.
Since most of the resources focus only on the motivation needed for the “beginning stage,” it is a necessary process for those who are starting something, and for students who are just learning leadership at school, so these books are very popular and selling well. Almost all of them introduce their books as must-read books, as textbooks. As a result, most leaders stop at this stage, are satisfied, and conclude that “I’ve done my job.”
But what I’m interested in here is the question of “what happens to the motivated people at the beginning after that?” So, most pastors are embarrassed at this stage, thinking about whether to continue or stop. Since the lay people can’t wait long, if pastors don’t get an answer within two or three weeks, the credibility of leadership slowly begins to weaken, saying, “Now our pastor are quitting again.” This phenomenon is usually evident four to five months after starting ministry. From here, different leadership should be exercised, but it cannot be done in the way it has been done so far, so they began to worry.
While the pastor is agonizing, it is inevitable that the lay people will soon quit their ministry. They used to questioned, “what’s next?” And if they stay in this ministry, they realize that they can’t grow. Because they no longer feel the need to stay in the ministry. So many ministry workers stop at this stage and close the door because they don’t solve these problems.
So, motivation to continue like this, especially in long-term ministry, is an inevitable task. Leaders have to learn many ways. Fortunately, I overcame this problem by solving it. First, I started to read many books about learned how to endure and to solve it in these times.
When I saw our staff growing up in the ministry, I also felt a challenge, and I recognized that I had to grow up as well, and at the same time, I had no choice but to find an exit. So I slowly overcame it by looking for ideas from many books and advice from my mentor, Pastor Melvin.
At this point, we leaders need quite technical leadership. Only textbook and theoretical basic leaderships cannot overcome this stage. Such leadership has long been mastered and obsolete. At this stage, different materials, different approaches, and different leadership are needed.
People who follow us as they watch us want to check our thoughts, directions, and minds from time to time. In particular, where we “want to go” and “where we are headed” are an absolute factor that gives them a sense of certainty.