Current events have caused me to be thinking about the way the role of pastor is structured in American Evangelical churches these days. One event was the announcement by a local megachurch pastor that he is stepping down to make way for a new and younger pastor after 37 years at the church. Another event was the recent announcement from Josh Harris, author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye back in the 90’s and former pastor of a megachurch in Virginia, that he is both divorcing his wife and abandoning Christianity.
When the local pastor announced his plan to step down he provided input to the church that he views his role as the senior pastor of a megachurch (4000+ members) with this kind of approximate work division: 70% CEO of a large organization, 30% preaching. This is not to say that the organizational work has no ministry component to it, since that organization exists in order to do ministry. Yet I found this description somewhat troubling and I still do. For a long time I have been concerned about the failure to make disciples in local churches (see this prior blog: https://dad-isms.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-failure-to-make-disciples.html ). As I have pondered this division of work in the daily role of a megachurch pastor, it seems to me that we may be structuring churches in a way that essentially guarantees that pastors are not disciple-makers. The megachurch model may very well demand an effective organizational manager who also preaches but it seems to leave little time for personally making disciples. It seems more aligned to a commission to ‘go to all the world and do church’ rather than to the Great Commission of ‘go to all the world and make disciples’. It seems to me that senior pastors should first of all be ‘discipler in chief’ more than CEO.
The Josh Harris apostasy reminded me of this and also brought into focus the celebrity dimension of pastoral temptation. It is true that significant leadership of many kinds involves at least some amount of celebrity/notoriety and the temptations that come with that. Harris was vaulted into a celebrity position early in life with his book at age 21, and then he became a megachurch pastor soon after, and that without having had theological education. It seems clear in retrospect that he was unprepared for either the celebrity or the pastoral role, but more fundamentally it seems he never became a disciple himself let alone a disciple-maker of others. Yet he appeared to ‘succeed’ as a megachurch CEO and pastor until he voluntarily stepped down to go get an education (which then led to other problems apparently though it is not clear how all this unfolded: see this Al Mohler podcast https://albertmohler.com/2019/08/01/briefing-8-1-19 ). This makes me question if the entire megachurch structure is part of the problem. Other recent issues with megachurch celebrity pastors have also contributed to this concern (see this blog regarding Mark Driscoll, James MacDonald and others: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/07/kissing-christianity-goodbye ). Recent concerns about Andy Stanley’s sermons advising the church to ‘unhitch from the Old Testament’ come to mind as well regarding megachurch leaders who seem theologically unprepared as Harris also was. Though Stanley did go to seminary, the depth of his theology is questionable.
I continue to be troubled by the CEO model of the pastoral role. In my 40+ years of work in corporate America I had the opportunity to have some acquaintance and work contact with some CEO’s and those one level down who were competing to be the next CEO for a large Fortune 500 company. I cannot say I would want to be like them nor would I want my children to be like them. They may feel the same about me, but this experience alone troubles me about making the CEO a model for the church. As I consider these recent events, I am becoming more convinced that the CEO model in churches is guaranteeing the end of discipleship as a primary role for pastors.
