In the Coracle

Planting Pastor != Preaching Pastor

January 8, 2005 // Tags: Mt. Si Vineyard

I’m considering forming a rotation of people to preach on Sundays and unclenching my virtual fists from the virtual pulpit.

It’s an interesting thing to think about in a small church like us - church planting materials basically say that guests decide to become part of the community based upon whether they like the initial atmosphere of the gang and whether they identify with the pastor (i.e. can they see themselves following this shepherd; do they “click”; do they agree with the direction the church is aiming, etc). In a preaching team environment, how do they identify with this team on a first time basis?

Early in the life of a plant, the planting pastor or lead pastor or whatever the title for “me” is - that person is the entrepreneur, guiding, leading, listening, focusing, cheerleading. There isn’t a lot of work to do, so there’s not a ton of work to spread around. We’re trying to do something a little differently; instead of me focusing all the energy myself until we hit the “magic 100 barrier” wherein the pastor needs to begin to delegate, we want to be much more team-led from the beginning. We’re trying to balance between a Quaker-style model in which the church only moves if there is concensus between everybody and a CEO-style model wherein the church moves wherever the Head says it goes. I believe my call is to be the front, the lead shepherd, but I also highly value team and releasing the diversity of gifts among us.

So coming back to a preaching team idea - I have one other person I know who is gifted and skilled to preach. She’s coming from a very different style than I am, but she’s quite gifted. One of our gang says that her approach is more preaching; mine is more teaching. Interesting observation. There may be others among us; I have to pray and watch more. But I think this is an experiment that feels like “us” to me. In my current view, I’d be part of that rotation, and it wouldn’t necessarily even be a strict round-robin. We could ease into this type of rotation slowly or quickly, with different frequencies for different people.

It’s not easy, though - considering how to give up any or some or most of the preaching and teaching time on our Sunday gatherings. The Lord’s teaching me way more than I wanted to learn about myself as he’s leading me in this topic.

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Introduction

Welcome! I'm Pat, and I'll be your host here. Please comment on what you see here. I am a lay missionary to North Bend on the east side of Seattle, a husband, dad to 2 kids, a software test architect for DeepRockDrive, a web software company that does live, interactive concerts streamed over the Internet. I'm also a failed and (quite possibly future) church planter and a Doctor of Ministry student with Bakke Graduate University, and usually on this blog we discuss Christian spirituality (especially of the Celtic, post-Evangelical, post-Charismatic and neo-monastic flavors), photography, motorcycles, and other oddball things.

About the Coracle

The ancient Celts traveled in coracles - handmade, wooden framed and hide-covered boats, to journey where the trinitarian God led them. Though the transportation was simple, the journey was profound. This image is an illustration of the way I experience God's guidance - an invitation to travel with him on his paths, not mine; at his pace, not mine.