A View from the Steeple
Perceptions of a small church pastor.
Ben Patterson
January 1, 1980
As we researched what should 8ยก into LEADERSHIP, one concern we often heard was, "Don't forget the small church!" In the future we'll publish case studies and various articles for leaders in smaller congregations. But the person we turned to for this first issue was Ben Patterson. He pastors a small church and is also unusually gifted as a writer and thinker. We asked him to address himself to the issue of power and authority as viewed by the pastor of a small congregation. He hasn't come up with a lot of nuts-and-bolts advice-but with something perhaps much more vital to the person struggling with the problems of a small congregation. He talks about how to view ourselves, how to gain a perspective. We all need that. As a pastor, Ben writes with an eloquence and biblical insight which have practical applications indeed.
German historians have a word for a particular way of writing history. Roughly translated, it describes history written from the point of view you get by climbing your own church tower and looking around: a view from the steeple.
Its limitations are obvious. If, as you sit perched on your steeple, you see nothing but prosperity and plenty for miles around, you might be tempted to conclude that that is the way things are everywhere. If, on the other hand, all you see is famine and war, the opposite conclusion might easily be drawn. In either case you are illusioned by present circumstances.
Such is the way it is, perched on your own steeple. I am acutely aware of this as I write this article. For I am the pastor of a small church, just four years old, in the midst of a burgeoning southern California, Orange County-planned community called Irvine. We're just 12 miles south of Disneyland, if you know what I mean. ...
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