One of the things that I love the most about my job is when I get invited to walk alongside congregations in pastoral transition. When a church council or call team asks me to share my thoughts on best practices for a good call process, one piece of advice seems to surprise them more than any other: Do not ask “What do we want in a pastor?”
As I speak these words, exasperated church leaders stare back at me and occasionally someone gives voice to the look on their collective faces: “How else are we supposed to figure out what to look for in our next pastor?!?” The answer lies in the sage wisdom passed down from generation to generation in understanding the difference between wants and needs.
Parents of young children learn to make this distinction with their sons and daughters. At some point we all learn the hard truth that we don’t always get what we want in life. Instead, we should rejoice and give thanks to God as he provides for our basic human needs. In our faith communities we are reminded of God’s goodness of provision as we pray and ask him to do it again in the Lord’s prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Truth is that often the things we want in life are not always what are best for us. How many times have you finally gotten something that you have really wanted for a long time only to feel disappointed or let down? Sometimes we can even be led astray by our wants. Chasing after wants always leads to sin whenever our wants do not align with the will of God.
So, what is a call team supposed to do if they should not ask “What do we want in a pastor?” By now you probably guessed it: the much better question to ask is “What do we need in our next pastor?” To begin to answer that question requires church leaders first to do some honest self-assessment: Who are we? What are we good at? What do we struggle with? What is God calling us to do and where is God calling us to go in the next chapter? Only after that are we ready to begin to answer the most important question of a pastoral transition: What do we need most in a pastor for us to faithfully pursue the mission and vision God has given us?
We seem to have an uncanny ability to ultimately find what we are looking for, even if it does not happen right away. Therefore, it is vital to look for what is most important which rarely has anything to do with what we want. Whether your church is in pastoral transition or not, what are you seeking? Is your church trying to satisfy the people in the pews and focused on giving them what they want? Or are you focused on the Kingdom mission that God is calling you to pursue? I encourage you to prayerfully reconsider all the business of the church through this filter: What do we need to seek or do to be faithful to God’s call. Imagine what God could do with a church full of people working together in pursuit of a God-given mission and vision!
