No Senior Pastor? Can it work?
My friend Maël from “The Adventures of Maël & Cindy” has (finally!) completed his series examining various view of the “senior pastor”. His final post is called “The Senior Pastor – Fourth View: final comments.”
So what are the four views of “the senior pastor”? Maël describes them in his first post in the series:
- The senior pastor is the leader and has more authority (decision-making responsibility) than other elders/pastors.
- The senior pastor is the leader but has the same authority has other elders/pastors.
- “First among equals” – the natural leader comes to the top because of function and gifting, not title.
- There is no human senior pastor.
In his last post, Maël makes some final comments about this fourth view – no human senior pastor. By the way, Maël knows from experience that this can and does “work,” because he was one of our elders… and we do not have a human senior pastor, nor do we have a “first among equals.”
Actually I have one more post …
Maël,
oops. At least I got the two dots over the “e” in your name right. Hey, when are you moving back to North Carolina?
-Alan
Hopefully not until he has helped us with our pursuit of Christ. Alan, you need to obey the scriptures. One says “it is better to give than receive” the other one is “don’t look out for your own interests”. Which one are you obeying by asking Mael to move back? Tell me, which one dog gonnit
The question, “Does it work?” always scares me when it comes to the life of the church. We all know the more important question is, “What does the bible say?”
It’s fascinating that the same people who ask what the bible says about almost everything else will resort to the question of pragmatism when it comes to the church.
Lionel,
All I can say, brother, is that you should consider others (me) as more important than yourself. I’m praying for you.
Eric,
I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read Maël whole series. He covers the biblical and historical evidence in other posts. But, since (as you said) so many turn to pragmatic arguments, I think its good that he touched on the practical side of having no senior pastor. And, you are another one of those strange few who know that it can and does work.
-Alan
Alan,
Thanks for pointing us to this series by Mael. I’ve spent the evening reading it all (also didn’t realize he had moved to Texas to attend seminary).
This subject seems to rear its head for our assembly when we meet others as much as homeschoolers hear “what about socialization?”.
8) @ Alan