Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Pastor - Catalyst
I had an incredible time last week in 2 meetings in 2 cities with 2 domains of society. One domain was that of pastors. Several of us came together to see how we can engage society together. They represent several denominations and styles of church, but what’s exciting is they all realize none of them have the whole package. We all need each other. I pray it’s a movement. Several do networks and other things. I get excited thinking about the traction that could be gained from all of us coming together.
In my worship time this morning, in Streams in the Desert, I read about David Brainerd, a missionary to the American Indians who was impacted by Jonathan Edwards. They buried Edwards’ daughter beside him, though never married, they were engaged and she never married. Some would say a life wasted--not at all. Henry Martyn, from Cambridge, read the biography that Jonathan Edwards wrote and became a missionary to Turkey, and died at the age of 31. These guys’ lives far outlived them. They were missional to the core.
Our missional living is just too easy and too quick to qualify. Both then and even now, in the East, to follow means something. What is a pastor who really wants to be missional? In The Starfish and the Spider, it spends a lot of time talking about the catalyst. A friend of mine describes pastors who want to reach their cities as catalysts. It’s a good description. Bishops, elders, deacons, pastors, apostles, teachers, prophets--if the New Testament were being written today, I’d venture another descriptor would be "catalyst!"
Here’s a new definition of pastor:
Catalyst: The nexus point in a local church for the mobilization of the entire body of Christ to engage the whole of society with the whole Gospel of the Kingdom for the complete and radical transformation of lives and the community.
That’s my first stab--what do you some of you pastors and church planters think?
In my worship time this morning, in Streams in the Desert, I read about David Brainerd, a missionary to the American Indians who was impacted by Jonathan Edwards. They buried Edwards’ daughter beside him, though never married, they were engaged and she never married. Some would say a life wasted--not at all. Henry Martyn, from Cambridge, read the biography that Jonathan Edwards wrote and became a missionary to Turkey, and died at the age of 31. These guys’ lives far outlived them. They were missional to the core.
Our missional living is just too easy and too quick to qualify. Both then and even now, in the East, to follow means something. What is a pastor who really wants to be missional? In The Starfish and the Spider, it spends a lot of time talking about the catalyst. A friend of mine describes pastors who want to reach their cities as catalysts. It’s a good description. Bishops, elders, deacons, pastors, apostles, teachers, prophets--if the New Testament were being written today, I’d venture another descriptor would be "catalyst!"
Here’s a new definition of pastor:
Catalyst: The nexus point in a local church for the mobilization of the entire body of Christ to engage the whole of society with the whole Gospel of the Kingdom for the complete and radical transformation of lives and the community.
That’s my first stab--what do you some of you pastors and church planters think?
Comments:
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I like it. That is actually the term that applied ethnomusicologist use because it conveys the idea that we are just speeding up something that is not really ours in the first place--indigenous music compositions of the host culture. Likewise, for pastors how dare we think the Kingdom is "ours" and the laity merely pawns. The Kingdom is God's given through the laity. If we catalyze, it means a changed pastoral role. It means we equip others to preach and teach and get out of the way. It means team curriculums are written and developed by lay persons. It means we train others to do acts of mercy whereby team members begin to do the hospital visits and head up major projects (and people's attitudes don't become, "well it didn't really count, the pastor wasn't there.") It means, like a chemical catalyst, we speed up the reaction but realize we are necessarily a core component to its happening....hmmm--that attention actually goes back to Jesus and not our own agendas, books, conferences, cd's or ministries.
# posted by 
: 12:16 PM
: 12:16 PM
"It means, like a chemical catalyst, we speed up the reaction but realize we are NOT necessarily a core component" ..oops
# posted by : 12:17 PM
: 12:17 PM
I like the thought. Actually, some are calling the leader of a church planting movement in a city the "city catalyst." What an amazing responsibility for a lead pastor of a local church! Pastors need to give themselves permission to pursue such a role inder the call of God. Boards and congregations need to give the pastor the freedom to seek to mobilize other pastors and city leaders to build the kingdom in that city. It will mean that a pastor will have to release or delegate other local church pastoral responsibilites. A pastor will have to say "no." Time and other resources must be budgeted for prayer for city reaching and kingdom building work. The question then becomes, "Will the pastor and the people be willing to pay the price to build the kingdom?"
I haven't read the book you make reference to, but understand my own role as a missionary to be primarily one of being a catalyst for church planting. If I set out to plant a church, we might see 1-2 in a year. But if I pour myself into training 100 others over that same period of one year, we see many more church plants than if I had done one myself.
Reading the stuff coming out about APEPT (Eph 4)...i wonder if the catalyst would fall under the umbrella of apostolic function. Since, in the west (maybe elsewhere), most church leaders bear the title "pastor", your right in that the activity of catalyzing should be a part of the armament of the "pastor". The question I have is, "which pastor"? Music pastor? Small Groups pastor? Communications pastor? Development pastor?
If what Hirsch and these guys are writing about is bona fide, which it seems to be, how about we come up with some new, understandable, sensible terms that will help identify the apostles from the prophets, from the evangelists, from the...........?
Right now "pastor" is the blanket term for leaders in ministry. Should we work at changing that?
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If what Hirsch and these guys are writing about is bona fide, which it seems to be, how about we come up with some new, understandable, sensible terms that will help identify the apostles from the prophets, from the evangelists, from the...........?
Right now "pastor" is the blanket term for leaders in ministry. Should we work at changing that?
# posted by : 1:07 PM
: 1:07 PM << Home
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