Pastor or Reluctant CEO

Remember when you graduated from seminary and you were on fire to bring your new knowledge, skills and passion for the ministry to a local church? How long was it before the fire extinguishers in the congregation were aimed at you and your passion was a smoldering ember smothered by administrative responsibilities? And how long was it before you realized that those responsibilities came with little or no authority? For those of us ordained into a congregational system of church government we soon found that our passion for ministry threatened to pull apart the tightly woven fabric of the business as usual business model so comfortable and familiar to the congregation. Suddenly, you found yourself a reluctant CEO expected to be an expert on finance, strategic planning, management, and conflict resolution. The paradox was that even if you were an expert in one of those areas your ideas were often dismissed because how could a seminary trained person know anyting about real world business issues. And you wondered if you would have better served the church with a MBA or a MSW. The challenge for pastors today is how to recover their passion, kindle the fire in their people and reclaim the scriptural model for church life. This isn't to say that there aren't valuable leadership skills that the clergy need to know. Most definitely they do. That is the challenge for seminaries and denominations to take up. So, here's my question to all the pastors, seminary professors and denominational executives...What are we all pretending not to know as we look at today's church? Stay tuned.