How Pastors Rate as Leaders
Leadership surveys pastors and their congregations.
Eric Reed and Collin Hansen
October 1, 2003
I'm frustrated," a pastor in New England confessed to the speaker at a pastors conference. "All I ever read about or hear about is Leadership. All the books on pastoring seem to be about dynamic, strategizing, visionary leadership. My problem is, I don't feel I'm built for that. Can you help me?" The pastor was confessing to Joseph Stowell, president of Moody Bible Institute. Stowell is in the business of building ministry leaders, and business is booming. Maybe that's the problem. Business is booming. Books on pastoral leadership today tend to emphasize business terminology, and the leading pastors of our day often appear to be successful in the business of the church. Stowell empathized with the vexed pastor. "What do your people expect of you?" Stowell asked. "Do you think they expect you to be a great leader? Or do they expect you to feed them, care for them, and love them?" "Feed, care, and love them," the pastor said, visibly relieved. "He felt such release," Stowell said, recalling the scene. Many in pastoral leadership, however, continue to feel tension between the two—pastoring and leading. With high profile CEOs and megachurch leaders as models, how do most pastors measure up? How can they? For answers, we tried Stowell's approach: ask the congregations what kind of leadership they expect of their pastors, and compare their responses to the expectations pastors have for themselves. Our research team at Christianity Today International surveyed 168 pastors and 1,338 of their congregants. Our findings confirmed confidence in pastoral leadership, but also revealed that pastors and congregants fail to see eye-to-eye on many topics. Pastoring or leading?
Last year researcher ...
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