*This was originally posted at mattsvo.com*
John Piper once wrote a book titled, “Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.” It is fantastic and I recommend it for every pastor. It warns pastors of falling into the error of “professionalism.” Piper knew that falling into a spirit of professionalism as pastors could essentially destroy the essence of our calling as pastors.
A spirit of professionalism is still a danger to pastor ministry, but I think we are seeing a new wave: a spirit of entrepreneurship. While these two things are in many way inseparable, I think there is some important nuance between them.
Like with professionalism, not all aspects of an entrepreneurship are bad. In many ways it is quite helpful to have pastors that have some entrepreneur in them. The danger is in putting too much stock into entrepreneurship. A danger that can really dig against the true nature of calling and spiritual leadership in pastoral ministry.
Here are some examples of what I mean by “dangers”:
- There is a constant “make it happen” mentality that exists in entrepreneurs and it is sneaking its way into pastors hearts, minds, and strategies. Pastors are not called to “make it happen.” We are called to plow, pray, and watch God do what only he can do.
- The comparison game. I fear this new spirit of entrepreneurship amongst pastors has been breeding more “beating out the competition” and less, “We are called men.” Pastors ought to be quite satisfied in putting their head down for the work of the ministry. The temptation is to look around and see if we are as “successful” and “good” as those around us. We tie our identity as pastor closer to how we compare than how we are called.
- Pastors constantly jumping to the next “bigger, better” opportunity that will give them more “influence and impact.” Pastors lack of satisfaction in investing in the smaller community in which their church will never grow beyond 250, 150, 100 people. Nowhere in the Bible does it say, “Put yourself in position to have what you perceive to be the “biggest impact” at all costs.” Yet, that appears to be what many in pastoral ministry are doing.
- The way pastors relate to one another… “Where are you guys at? What are you running? What awesome stuff are you doing?” I’m not saying these are invalid questions. I am saying it is telling that these are the questions most often asked and written about. I think many pastors leave the ministry because they perceive themselves to be failures in the face of entrepreneurship, but according to the Bible they are doing just fine.
- Pastors can have a tendency to see people as a means to their work and not as the work. My church has a leadership axiom that I love: We don’t use people to get ministry done, we use ministry to get people done. I think this nails the true nature of pastoral ministry. Entrepreneurship can tempt us to see our people as the tools for what we think God wants to accomplish through us. We need to see our people as the very thing God wants to accomplish through us.
- We have put on extra-biblical expectations to what makes a good, successful pastor. Listen, I am a pastor at an Acts 29/SBC church. The A29 network was one of the first to see, promote, and utilize the positive aspects of a spirit and skill of entrepreneurship in pastors. With that, we also need to be the first to warn of the dangers of entrepreneurial spirit. In many cases we have added “entrepreneur skill” to the “requirements for pastoral ministry” list. This is extra-biblical add on that can be very unhealthy. The Bible tells us what is needed for eldership and pastoral ministry- entrepreneurship doesn’t make the list.
At the heart of these dangers is the temptation to undervalue true calling and overvalue the perception of what the particular pastor can do and get done. I am not saying this is a strong either/or. It is more of a “have the right values in the right balance.”
Eugene Peterson has a good word on this:
While being a pastor certainly has some of these components (entrepreneur work/mentality), the pervasive element in our 2,000 year pastoral tradition is not someone who “gets things done” but rather the person placed in the community to pay attention and call attention to “what is going on right now” between men and women, with one another and with God- this kingdom of God that is primarily local, relentlessly personal, and prayerfully “without ceasing.”
Our primary calling is a spiritual one. We are primarily spiritual leaders. We aren’t simply trying to “fix peoples problems” or “run an organization/enterprise.” While we are organizational leaders and we must help our people work through their problems, our primary aim is to shepherd the spiritual lives of a specific people.
Somehow we have lost our way a little bit. We have started judging the success of pastors by what they have managed to make happen and how much they have outwardly accomplished. The primary question we have to ask when evaluating a person’s ministry is faithfulness. Are they being faithful to their calling and does their ministry show faithfulness to the Bible and the Holy Spirit?
How we evaluate those things is a discussion for another day. We at least have to start by making sure we are asking the right questions.
Let’s take heed the dangers of the spirit of entrepreneurship that is pervading the pastoral ministry. Let’s make sure we are functioning out of a sense of calling to be faithful spiritual leaders and shepherds of those that God has entrusted to us. We aren’t trying to see how much we can accomplish through them, we are trying to see how much can be accomplished in them.
Take out the Piper quote and reference to Acts29 and this article could have been written at any time in my adult lifetime. The six bullet points are typical and common among the last several generations of pastors. To go back beyond that, check with Dave Miller.
“To go back beyond that, check with Dave Miller.” Ouch. And he thinks I’m brutal at times. I know that part of our Baptist heritage around these parts is preachers who set out, mostly on their own, to find a village that needed a Baptist church and get one going. That’s not what happened here–locals beat them to it. But there has long been that streak of “send him to do it all.” I think it reflects even in how we do training of ministers. The standard M.Div. involves learning a little bit of everything, so that we can do… Read more »
William,
I agree. Basically, the entrepreneur spirit has always been alive and kicking in America.
For some reason though, I think it has only been recently getting so closely attached to pastoral ministry.
I like your post, Matt. Success in ministry was framed with the “3 Bs” for as long as I have had any awareness.
This discussion is vital to the health of our souls and the great revealed wealth of our good God. How should leaders act and how can submitting to each other be so redeeming. We live in a world that values position,place and results more than faithfulness. Our enemy seeks to devour us and this leadership crucible is hanging like a millstone around the church’s neck. Let us keep talking to each other and to God about our place(s) in the kingdom.
In memory of Tommy Rucker.
Basing off of my international missions experience, I believe that entreprenuership is one of the qualities we as Americans are best known for. While it has its positive aspects that should not be indiscriminately denigrated, it can also has its pitfalls and downside. I believe we need to be careful to discern between godly, biblical leadership qualities and cultural ones. You have done an excellent job of examining that here.
More on this here: http://loveeachstone.blogspot.com/2006/12/entrepreneurial-spirit.html
Thanks David.
It is definitely something we need to keep a watchful eye on.
Great stuff Matt
For a shepherd, the sheep are not a tool in your wirk, they ARE your work.
Matt – I like your post and I’m processing through your thoughts. In the spirit of disclosure I will admit I am an entrepreneur (I’m a bi-vo pastor with an engineering consulting business) and I readily admit the problems of this within ministry. I wonder if the problem is entrepreneurship or misplaced goal or calling. What is our bottom line goal? Not the one we proclaim to everyone, but the one that our actions actually speak to. We may claim to want to make disciples, but our actions belie that we are more interested in getting a “bigger” church. Is… Read more »
Matt,
Great post; a good warning that needs repeating probably several times a generation. It should be a warning at the beginning and the end of seminary.
There has been a long history of pragmatism/professionalism in the SBC. As late as when I was a kid in the ’70s going back to when George Truett was a kid, THE mark of one’s spiritual walk with Christ was measured by the number of people you “had led to the Lord.”
The etymology and history of both words–“professional” and “entrepreneur”–suggest that we shouldn’t discard either one: profession: “c.1200, “vows taken upon entering a religious order,” from Old French profession (12c.), from Latin professionem (nominative professio) “public declaration,” from past participle stem of profiteri “declare openly” (see profess). Meaning “any solemn declaration” is from mid-14c. Meaning “occupation one professes to be skilled in” is from early 15c.; meaning “body of persons engaged in some occupation” is from 1610; as a euphemism for “prostitution” (e.g. oldest profession) it is recorded from 1888.” professional: “early 15c., of religious orders; 1747 of careers (especially of… Read more »
Greg, I’ve read the book mentioned in the post and it’s excellent. I also understand your point that there is nothing wrong with being a “professional” in our labors.. I think ths like so much in our discussions on this blog is not an either/or proposition…it’s a both/and. We are to take our work seriously and seek to excel at it, but at the same time we are to guard against falling into worldliness like competetivism and pragmatism to “outdo” our “competitors”. Weare to partner with others in the proclamation of the gospel, and working as unto the Lord to… Read more »
At a glance, both the book title and the blog title suggest that there is a defect with the corresponding word. The word itself isn’t defective. Any extremes people go to in applying the words “professional” and “entrepreneur” MIGHT be defective, but neither concept is inherently defective either in the present or in the history of usage of the word.
Well, unless you take into account this phrase: “manager or promoter of a theatrical production”. I’d truly like to believe that in no case would a church be confused with a theatrical production even if they use drama within worship…
Going for a catchy and interesting title may be part of the problem here….lol
It’s a both/and.
One extreme is the highly educated professional pastor mentality (like addressed in the article and pipers book) …,the other end if the spectrum is the anti educated pastor mentality “he ain’t got no education, but he’s got what it takes”.
Both extremes are wrong. There are churches and church members that demand both types though. There are pastors that revel in both mentalities as well.
We gotta stroke the right rhythm between the two, I think.
I wonder if this is why it seems as though fewer and fewer men are going into pastoral ministry. They simply don’t feel they have the add on qualifications expected by many churches and modeled by many evangelical superstar pastors.
Ouch. This also might be why the LDS church sustains its growth…there really isn’t any form of professional clergy in the local ward. If anything, the strong emphasis on “laity” in the local ward both reflects traditional Southern Baptist sentiment regarding the equality of position of “clergy” and “laity” and more broadly the doctrine of priesthood of the believer (singular). I think your comment is pretty insightful and while it is completely different than the point I was making, it echoes the concern I have that pastors would even for a nanosecond look down their noses at professionals and entrepreneurs.… Read more »
The pendulum can swing too far in the other direction as well. In part, the entrepreneur mentality here is a response to years of pastors and churches following the status quo. So the call to balance is apt. There must be a satisfaction with the scale of work that most pastors have before them while never being satisfied with where he and his people are spiritually.
I should add that there is no greater undertaking than guiding the hearts of believers through discipleship and the preaching of the gospel. No building, organization, or ministry has greater requirements, greater difficulties, or greater rewards.