The pastor as proactive leader

In their book, Spiritual Leadership, Henry and Richard Blackaby speak of two kinds of church leadership. The first one is task driven. Task-oriented leaders strive to “conquer the obstacles immediately in front of them. . . . They do not reflect on why they are doing what they are doing. . . . They value action over reflection—or more precisely, reaction over reflection.”¹ The second type is proactive. They commit time and energy to reflective thinking that leads to proactive behavior that effects change and leads to growth.

Having said that, the authors challenge us to consider the foundational differences that separate a reactive leader committed to reacting to the happenings of ministry and the proactive leader who intelligently charts a course based on a vision of what needs to happen in ministry.

Proactive spiritual leadership, first and foremost, results from the Holy Spirit impacting the life of the believer. The Blackabys state that “spiritual leadership is moving people on to God’s agenda” under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit^.2 The Spirit accomplishes this by the intentional equipping of every member of the body with a competency or a mix of competencies, allowing each to contribute to the mission of the church. The same Spirit is responsible for transforming the character of these individuals in a manner consistent with the character of Christ. This Christlike character ensures the relational health of the community that He has called to His service. George Barna suggests that this combination of character and competency³ (spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit) serves as the bedrock upon which spiritual leadership rests.

Every person gifted and transformed by the Spirit should contribute to the overall process of spiritual leadership that accomplishes the Master’s will through His church. Each must recognize that the proactive “doing” of ministry comprises the work of every believer in the body. Formal leaders such as pastors, administrators, and local elected church leaders are called to the work of coordinating and developing the competencies of members. Additionally, their call includes encouraging the spiritual formation of character for those involved in the process of intentionally and intelligently meeting the challenges of the Great Commission.

Difference between reactive and proactive styles

A story in Ezra illustrates the difference between the two leadership mind-sets. Ezra has gathered approximately 1,500 men at a base camp beside the river Ahava in Babylon in preparation for the return to Jerusalem to reestablish the sacred temple economy. Everything is ready—carts loaded with vessels and scrolls, provisions packed, and a fresh decree from Artaxerxes, granting them generous access to the resources of the empire. As these pioneers prepare to return to the land of their fathers, Ezra calls them to assemble by families and report their numbers and names. When this mustering concludes, Ezra discovers their readiness is compromised by the absence of representatives from the tribe of Levi (Ezra 8:15–20).

The Levites were absent at this much anticipated prophetic moment marking the deliverance of God’s people from exile and the miraculous restoration of the sacred kingdom. The chosen tribe, whose ancestors had been set aside for ministry because of their readiness to step across the line with Moses, was nowhere near the line of service at Ahava. They were integral to the reestablishment of the temple services associated with the kingdom. Amazingly, Ezra knew just where to look—the Levitical seminary overseen by Iddo at Casiphia.⁴ There, Ezra’s messengers were able to gather (some commentators suggest “press” into service) a number of Levites, “men of understanding” who honorably reacted to the call of service to return to Israel. They left Casiphia and came immediately to join the returning exiles.

We can only guess why they were not present when muster was called at the river Ahava. It seems indeed odd that such a momentous event would pass Levitical notice without at least one or two feeling compelled to participate in a process that depends on their presence.

When called, they responded—a clear example of reactive ministry. They were accessible, available, and responsive when called. But proactive they were not! They missed this irretrievable moment in history when they might have demonstrated spiritual leadership. Rather than the priestly voice of Ezra, it should have and could have been the voices of the sons of Levi calling muster beside the river. They are forever left with the record and results of reactive service.

Called to spiritual leadership

Those of us summoned to professional gospel ministry are called to spiritual leadership as a vocation. We bear a title such as “Pastor” that commonly suggests a serene “feeding the flock” expectation. In reality, pastors possessed of diverse spiritual gift mixes are called to lead God’s people—mixes that may or may not include the spiritual gift of pastor. Scripture does not support elevating the gift of pastor to a position of superiority that uniquely qualifies one to serve as spiritual leader of the church. First and foremost, we are called to lead regardless of the gift(s) granted by the Holy Spirit. Leading is proactive. Common expectations can allow us to exhaust an entire career in caring, reactive service to God’s people, but such service does not qualify us as leaders if we fail to guide the members of the body into thoughtfully and proactively considering God’s high calling for each of them.

We have seen an emerging emphasis over the past decade or so regarding the role of the pastor as a trainer and equipper of the church. During most of that time, I have served as a ministerial supervisor. I have watched young men and women enter ministry with a passion for this proactive calling, only to encounter a Christian community that expects a pastor to be available and faithful in meeting the needs of the church. Frequently, little or no expectation of proactive leadership aimed at effecting change in the church exists. This paradox is marked by an uneven struggle between the expectations of the body and the intent of the young pastor. The lofty purpose of the pastor nearly always succumbs to the expectation of the body.

Russ Moxley, in his book Leadership and Spirit,⁵ quotes Parker Palmer on this issue: “When I follow only the oughts, I find myself doing work that is ethically laudable but is not mine to do. A vocation that is not mine, no matter how externally valued, does violence to the self—in the precise sense that it violates my identity and integrity for some abstract norm. When I violate myself, I invariably violate the people I work with.”⁶

When the high calling of God in Christ Jesus becomes shaken and made to tumble before the task-focused demands of a need-based routine, any believer experiences loss. And the loss develops into an even more tragic situation for a young pastor intent on leading change in a renewed biblical paradigm. The high calling of the pastor hereby threatened consists of a calling to equip and encourage the members of the church to a ministry assignment uniquely fitted to their gifts. We must not surrender the future of our church to the tradition of accepting reactive ministry while we know that God calls us to a loftier platform of spiritual leadership.

Pastors find themselves in the unenviable position of being pulled in one direction by their calling and professional training and in another by traditional expectations of the congregation. Such stress is sometimes buttressed by the expectations of church administrators who themselves were trained and nurtured in the task-focused model of managing challenges and accomplishing tasks. If Palmer’s assessment of the impact of such behavior is true, then we damage our professional pastors and with them we violate the people God has called us to lead.

This dilemma reminds us of Jethro’s pronouncement in Exodus 18:17 that Moses would wear himself out along with the people he was leading if he persisted in his “get the job done myself” approach to leadership.

Moving toward spiritual leadership

What can we do to move toward our calling of spiritual leadership? As with all leadership growth, we should and must begin with an assessment of ourselves.

• Is my concept of spiritual leadership based upon a solid foundation of biblical theology?

• Am I committed to a sacred calling that goes beyond simply meeting expressed needs?

• Do I have a vision of ministry as a platform for spiritual leadership?

• Do I see myself as responsible for identifying the will of God and effecting change that leads to reform in the dysfunctional paradigms that mark the twenty-first century church?

• Do I see myself simply as a servant to the church or as a leader called to serve the transformational needs of the church?

• Does my view of the leadership process extend beyond positional leaders, i.e., denominational leaders, pastors, and elected church leaders? Does my view embrace every member of the church as a Spirit-gifted, Spirit-transformed leader whom God expects me to nurture toward an effective, proactive contribution to the total process of leadership within the body?

We must assess our professional work patterns. A proactive/reactive analysis of our calendar activities over a period of time will reveal whether we are reacting to ministry challenges as an on-call servant of the church or proactively engaging in reflection, planning, and visioning initiated by God’s agenda rather than the exigencies of the day. We need to help the church understand that meeting the needs of daily life in the church belongs to the church, not the pastor alone.

The proactive pastor is a spiritual leader called to train and equip the church for competent and effective ministry that meets the complex needs of church life. Such change will require time and patience for the church to move from a pastor-centric model of ministry marked by professional reaction to need toward one of an empowered church served by a competent and proactive spiritual leader. This requires gentle persistence, consistent responses to needs, and unwavering trust in the gifts of the Spirit to re-educate the congregation and to develop a corps of lay leaders to become spiritual leaders themselves.

Finally, it will require God-given courage, forged in intercessory prayer, and a tenacious commitment to one’s own calling as a man or woman of God to hold back the tide of congregational needs while modeling proactive spiritual leadership qualities and nurturing the same in every believer.