What Do We Expect?

By Mike Glenn

Since I’ve started working with pastors and local churches in my new role as President of the Engage Church Network, the issue I have run into most frequently is a conflict of expectations between the pastor, church leadership and the church itself.  Pastors and churches, pastors and church leaders, leaders and churches all have a different job description for the pastor. The pastor can be doing a great job and still be in trouble because of not meeting someone’s unspoken and unknown expectations. Yet, when you try to nail down the problem, what we find out is every group in the church has a different need and expectation for the pastors. These needs often conflict with each other and they’re never written down. The only way pastors learn they’re not meeting expectations is when someone starts yelling. 

Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash

The role of the pastor has changed since I began my ministry in the early 1980’s. When I started, the job description was pretty simple. Preach on Sunday morning, teach on Wednesday night and visit the congregation as needed. My day consisted of studying in the morning and visiting the congregation in the afternoon. By the time I retired from being pastor in 2023, my day was totally different. I usually started with a breakfast meeting with leadership and spent my mornings in study. However, while I was always working on an upcoming sermon, I was now responsible for a whole range of social media content. Afternoons were filled with meetings that usually went into the evenings. These meetings would range from church finances, to hiring and managing staff, outlining the mission and detailing the strategies of the church. I needed to be aware of the ever changing political realities that surrounded our church. During Covid, I had to be a medical expert as well. I need to keep up with everything from local ordinances to proposed state laws involving issues of concern to the church such as adoption and right to life issues. 

Depending on the moment and the current news cycle, the church would expect me to be ready to discuss any and all of the countless complex issues that affected our congregation. Those issues could range from COVID mandates to how our church would respond to gender issues. I had to understand the state of the American economy if we were going to effectively plan our upcoming budget. Honestly, one thing I loved about my job was I was never bored and there was always something interesting to do.  At other times, I was overwhelmed by the complexity and volume of issues that needed my attention. 

This leads us back to a fundamental understanding of the church how the Spirit organizes the work of the church. The Spirit does this through spiritual gifts. All of us have spiritual gifts – that includes pastors and members of the congregation. No one has all the gifts. We’re created to work together. There is something about the glorious mosaic of all of us serving together that makes the presence of God known in a way no one can do by themselves. This also means that no one person has a monopoly on the mission of the church. We all have gifts and we need to stay in the lanes those gifts open up. 

One of the best ways a church can take care of its pastor is to sit down with the pastor and discern together how the pastor is gifted and determine how best the pastor’s giftedness can be best focused in service of the church. Other leadership positions in the church should go through the same discernment procedure. Each position should be accompanied by a alist of the  spiritual gifts required for this work and then discern those in the congregation who have these gifts. Put the opportunity and the person together and watch the Spirit work. 

I can see you rolling your eyes. This won’t work, Mike. That’s too complicated and difficult. I would disagree. The chaos of most churches' operations that waste money, time and talent is what’s difficult to watch. A lot of us have either left a church or know people who have left a church because no one could figure out what was going on in the church. This isn’t God’s will for our churches. God isn’t the author of chaos. 

We need to get back to the basic structures as outlined in the New Testament. It begins with a little honesty and humility on everyone’s part. First, pastors have to understand that while we may be good at some things, we are awful at other things. We should do what God has called us to do and partner with the congregation to get the rest of the work done. The church also needs to remember pastors aren’t called to do the work of the church. The church does the ministry. This is the biblical instruction. 

Too many pastors are burning out. Too many pastors are leaving their churches in what should be the prime of the ministry. They’re leaving because they can’t live up to the unrealistic and constantly changing expectations of their congregations. Too many of them are leaving the church in order to save their families and their own souls. These are good people who can’t take the constant criticisms and conflicts that unknown and unreasonable expectations create in their own lives and in the lives of their families. 

Pastors, sit down and do a thorough self audit. What gifts do you have? What ministry do you do well? What do you need to delegate? Sit down with your leadership and hammer out the clear expectations of the pastor and of the congregation (yes, it works both ways). Decide how you will do God’s work together. And above all, the pastor and church should be in total agreement that the goal is to meet God’s expectations for His church and not just argue about our own.