Pastor

My church is looking for a new senior pastor. It's been quite some time, and a couple weeks ago we had a prospective pastor come preach. To the extent that I like preaching, which isn't much, I felt like he was great. Very different in style from what our church is used to, but I found him engaging and relatable, and I walked away personally challenged.

But what I really liked about this guy wasn't his preaching. Like I said, I'm not real into preaching period. What I liked was his heart. His character. He was authentic, humble, and genuine. He spoke earnestly about what he cared about and some of his failings. He had a passion for helping people seek God and live as part of God's kingdom, and I was so excited for that kind of leader.

Today we had a church vote on him. I didn't get to vote since I'm not a member, and we won't know the results until later this week. But before the vote people shared various opinions and questions. And one thing that several people mentioned was not being a fan of his preaching style.

Now I get that some people have different preferences than me, and prefer different styles. (But again...my real preference would be no preaching,  just a guy leading discussion that helps us draw out what the Scripture is saying. In fact in my sermon journal I write down ideas of experiences and discussions that could make the same teaching interactive and memorable. But I digress.)

But ultimately I just feel like preaching is not a big enough thing to say yes or no because of. I mean, it's 30 minutes a week of a full-time job. Sure, it's the most visible part...but that doesn't mean it's the most important. I think the most important thing about a pastor is that he can lead and manage the congregation with integrity. That he can help us grow closer to Christ and seek and serve him more.

I don't know how the people who didn't like his preaching voted, if that was enough to be a "no" for them. But I felt very discouraged sitting there and realizing how much emphasis many congregants were placing on preaching (which was just 1 out of 5 strengths our search team looked at).

So whether or not he gets the vote and comes to be our new pastor, I'm still discouraged. A church isn't made vibrant by 30 minutes of brilliant orating each week. A church is made vibrant when the people in it grow more and more in their love for God every day, support each other in community, and serve in unity. And the real job of a pastor is facilitating that and being an example of that.