Pastors and Technology: We Need to Re-Imagine Our Roles

Some of the commenters from my post yesterday got me thinking about some things that I just briefly want to comment on.

I ended my post with two thoughts:

Two things I think pastors, church leaders need to start wrestling with if they haven’t already:

1) Shift from geographical based ministry to online community/networking based. This does not mean people still won’t gather, but how, where and when they gather will change.

2) Technology is allowing the people/congregants to self-organize, collaborate and participate without having to go through traditional means and hierarchies of the church. I think this will change the role of the pastor drastically from the top-down leader, to more of a facilitator. I think that means we will see less and less traditional roles of pastors, and maybe even less full-time positions, etc.

Here is what I’m thinking. And I’m thinking these things not on any official research I have done, but more on conversations I am having, trends I am seeing, what I am reading, etc.

One of the issues about #2 is that people are concerned about a “consumer” mentality in the Church…more than we already have now. Also, what will be the role of the pastor.

Couple of thoughts. And they are simply thoughts, not completely worked out, but stuff I am hypothesizing and thinking on.

I think the “modularity” of Church that Andrew Jones talked about won’t drive more church consumerism, but will actually reduce it.

Why? Because churches used to be the resource for all information (phone numbers, emails, addresses, theology, Christian education, prayer chains, etc.) and churches controlled the market on the ability to gather and organize. Think Sunday worship, Wed. night Bible studies, etc, etc. People traditionally have relied on the Church as the resource to gather people and dispense information.

Because of this, people would drive miles and miles to attend the church that could attract, gather and dispense the information for them. Often this process has pulled people out of community…driving miles and miles to attend a church that is not rooted in their community where they live, etc.

I think that now people can easily organize, collaborate and dispense information themselves, they will no longer need to rely on the Church as needing to fulfill that role. I think there will be a desire for people to organize and gather in their own communities of locality, rather than feeling the need to drive to churches who used to have to do that for them. I am not saying there will not be church or people won’t go to them. They will, but I think church will look different than it traditionally does now.

In Short: Technology=Ability to Organize and Collaborate=Congregants Taking the Responsibility Into Their Own Hands.

What about the pastor? I think there will always be the need for a pastor, but what is a pastor is my question? Have we possibly gotten away from the Biblical role of the pastor?

In the NT we see the correlation between the shepherd and pastor. I have been told before by some pastors that we are to be ranchers…not shepherds. That has a whole other connotation in my mind.

One commenter said that it’s actually not the pastors who do the shepherding anymore, but the small group leaders, etc. I agree with him. It’s hard to find a pastor who shepherds.

I believe that with the ability to gather, organize and collaborate that technology affords us, it frees up the pastor to do the work of actually shepherding, rather than being the CEO, rancher, etc. I used the word facilitator in yesterday’s post, and what I mean by that is that the Church is beginning to have the ability to organize on their own, which frees the pastor up to facilitate the movement and truly shepherd the people.

In Short: Technology=Ability to Organize and Collaborate=Congregants Taking the Responsibility Into Their Own Hands=Pastor Can Truly Be a Shepherd.

Of course my own theology and praxis is shining through there, some of which you may agree with, and some which you may not agree with.

But for any of this to take place (which I think is a great thing for the Church), churches, pastors and ministry leaders are going to have to let go of the “power” they have traditionally held, and instead be a church and people that walk humbly amongst the people they are there to serve. Even questioning their roles as pastors in the Church.

In closing, I’m aware that some traditions/denominations already seem to embody this theology and praxis. I wonder if Wess Daniels can shed some light on these thoughts in light of the Quaker tradition that he is a part of.

If you are wondering what to read on some of these issues, here are a few suggestions. There are a lot more, but here are some that I have found helpful and challenging. Please add to this list and let me know what you are reading that has been helpful in thinking about the issues of technology in redefining the role of pastors and the Church, especially as it relates to gathering, organizing, collaborating, etc.

Check Them Out

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom.

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky.

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

Facebook for Pastors: How To Build Relationships And Connect With People Using The Most Popular Social Network On The Internet by Chris Forbes

The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging and Podcasting for Christ, edited by John Mark Reynolds and Roger Overton

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

 

Stress and the Unrealistic Expectations of the Church

Recently, I wrote a post called We Are All Pastors, and was discussing this topic with my co-worker and friend Rhett Smith. He brought up an interesting point in his response to the post, and something I think is worth evaluating (or re-evaluating). He said:

I wonder if the expectations that pastors have upon lay leadership, congregants, volunteers, etc. is actually quite skewed. We challenge people to commit and step up, not taking into consideration the demands of their daily life, when those of us in full-time ministry have the luxury to make that our job, have flexible schedules, etc.

Many of us in youth ministry are probably dealing with over-committed and over-stressed students who have over-committed and over-stressed parents. In thinking about our context in particular, we have kids who go to school all week, hours of homework every night, and have parents that drive all over the city to take them to their different teams and recitals. Then the weekend comes and Saturday is an excuse to schedule more “make up” time to catch up on the time lost during the week. Because they have no time during the week or are not available, we respond by scheduling stuff on Sunday at church because that is the best time for us to get things accomplished pertaining to church. The same pattern is followed with the volunteers working with students. The question becomes: Are we contributing to or relieving the stress placed on the people of the church? How would our ministries look if we “scaled back”? Do we, as leaders in the church, even have that luxury?

Dr. Archibald Hart at Fuller Theological Seminary has done some great work regarding stress and its affects on people today. In his book Adrenaline and Stress, he talks about the toll our body, mind, and soul takes in our “hurried” culture. He says that many people suffer from “Hurried Sickness” in which people live in a constant state of “internal state of emergency”. David Elkhind in his book The Hurried Child defines stress as:

Any unusual demand for adaptation that forces us to call upon our energy reserves over and above that which we ordinarily expend and replenish in the course of a twenty-four-hour period. (The Hurried Child, p. 166)

The stress is felt by everyone: Students, parents, volunteers, and even pastors. Pastors feel the stress of expectations placed on them to provide great programs for the people in their congregation. If the needs of the congregation are not met, then the people (and their wallets and calendars) leave with them. The response is to get help running these programs to meet the needs of the congregation. The help comes from people within the “stressed out” congregation leading to a vicious cycle in which the “good news” becomes the casualty. It seems that the culture of stress has created unrealistic expectations on both pastors and congregants alike. How did we get here? Better yet, how can we break this cycle?

 

We Are All Pastors

I am starting to think out loud, and want your interaction and feedback.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Acts 2:42-47

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

1 Peter 2:9

Without getting into detail, there have been some issues at our church. I know all churches have issues, so that is nothing new. But the issues occurring at our church have got me thinking about what we value in being ministered to by others, in particular those with the title of “pastor”. It seems that there has been a disconnect in the pastors and the rest of the staff when it comes to being ministered to. Now, please know that I am not letting the pastors off the hook, or saying anything about their leadership style; I am going for something deeper…

I guess what the entire situation has got me thinking about is this: Why do we put so much onus and credence in what the person with the title of “pastor” does or doesn’t do? And how do we get people to see that we are all “pastors”?

It seems that all of us in church ministry want to be ministered to and be acknowledged by our pastors. In looking at these passages, I can not help but ask the question: Why? Why does it matter what those with the title of pastor think? What does it matter if they do not minister to us? What does it matter if they barely even know who we are? (Speaking from a mega-church perspective) More importantly, is it fair to them to have the these expectations placed on them?

As I read the passage from Acts and 1 Peter, I see a “mega-church” community ministering to each other regardless of a pastor’s or an apostle’s presence. In the Acts passage, people are following the teachings of the apostles, but no where does it say or assume that the apostles are personally tending to the needs of ALL the people. It is the community of people that is speaking in to the lives of one another. They are all pastors!!

My question is: How do we get back to this? How do we get people to be okay with being ministered to by people that do not carry the title of pastor? How do we get to the place in our ministries where people “pastoring” one another is enough? Maybe the bigger question is: How do we get to the place where God is enough?