Perfect Pastors?

Posted by Alan Knox on Feb 24, 2008 in blog links, elders | 1 comment

Although he hasn’t been blogging much lately, I always enjoy reading Brandon’s posts at “Eleutheros“. His latest post is simply called “Grace“. I love to read about the journey that Brandon and his family is taking with God. We had hoped to meet up with them while we were in the Atlanta area over Christmas and New Years. Unfortunately, our schedules never meshed.

In this post, Brandon writes about one of the things that God has taught him over the last few months. He says:

I think the biggest challenge in this season for me has been being willing to trust pastors/leaders again. The problem is that I had built up a false image of what a pastor is from a spiritual standpoint. The fact is, no matter how perfect they appear both on and off the platform, they’re just men. Now that might not be a revelation for most but it was for me. I had managed, in my mind, to elevate pastors to some super christian status or standard that would be impossible for anyone to live up to.

I think this can be a struggle for all Christians, even pastors. We tend to place our human leaders on pedestals – where they do not belong. We tend to idololize our Christian celebrities to the point where we spend more time reading the books of our favorite authors more than we read Scripture.

Brandon ends his post like this:

Leaders limit their ability to lead when they put up a false appearance of perfection to appear “qualified” to lead. If perfection is the true standard for church leadership then there is only One who is qualified to lead the Church. There is freedom is realizing that you don’t have to be perfect to give leadership.

There is only One who is qualified to lead the church. I’m not that one, and you are not that one. There is only One who is perfect. I’m not that one, and you are not that one. We lead best from a human perspective when we are honest about our imperfections, and yet we continue to allow God to use us as an example to others.