Pastors as Enablers?

Bishop Sally Dyck tells of a conversation she had with a woman who proudly announced that she was 91 years old. In course of the conversation the woman said, "I love my granddaughters, and I am grateful for their care and attention of me, but I really love my grandsons."

Sally asked her why. "My granddaughters take good care of me, and that's sweet of them, but my grandsons, they try to find me adventures!"

The woman went on to tell how she and her grandsons had just had a great time rafting down the Colorado River.

That's what we need, pastors who can be more than caregivers and become those who find adventures for their congregations.

Veteran church observer Bill Easum has been helpful in helping us rethink our work as a Conference. When Easum turns his thoughts toward the issue of pastoral leadership, he makes an interesting distinction between the pastor as "enabler" and "care giver" and the pastor as transformative leader. I also am concerned about the way that we pastors have so wholeheartedly adopted a model of ministry where we become the giver of care rather than the spiritual leader. Here is Easum on the problem of pastors as mere enablers:

Enablers are people who above all else love caring for people so passionately that transformation or discipleship is seldom a concern. They often exude the Great Commandment, often to the extent that they have no time left for the Great Commission. Because they care so deeply about how others feel, they usually:

a.. Allow everyone else to set their agenda instead of letting the call set it

b.. Wait for problems to come to them instead of anticipating the problem

c.. Avoid controversy rather than address it

d.. Wait to take action until they are forced, instead of being proactive

Often, this desire to care goes to the point that the enabler depends on his or her church to need him or her. In the most severe cases, the enabler needs the church to need him or her in order to gain self-worth.

Enablers usually have such a high level of mercy in their personality or gift mix that they render themselves ineffective. All of us have some mercy in us. They key is, does our tendency toward mercy dominate our lives? Mother Teresa had great mercy, but also great leadership skills and used her mercy to fuel her mission. Mercy is good if it fuels the mission; it is disastrous if it stifles or sidetracks it. With most enablers, mercy derails the mission.

The statement in the opening exercise that best defines enablers is: "I enjoy visiting people in parishioners' homes, hospitals, and nursing homes and giving people spiritual comfort." If you checked this one, your preferred leadership style is probably that of an enabler. But here are a few more statements that can help you determine if you are an enabler. Each one is a mercy statement. As you will see, they are excellent statements for one to make. The issue is, how much do these kinds of statements give primary direction to your ministry? The more they do, the less effective you are likely to be as a leader.

a.. I often get frustrated when I see people hurt, displaced, or rejected.

b.. I find it hard to terminate someone's employment.

c.. I can easily look beyond a person's inadequacies or problems and see a life that matters.

d.. I feel such compassion for hurting people that I actively do what I can to alleviate the sources of their pain.

e.. I work through relationships rather than information to help people find wholeness in their lives.

f.. I go out of my way to avoid conflict.

Enabling is a valid gift from God and my comments should not in any way be seen as derogatory. If you're an enabler, don't give up just yet. According to a study done by George Barna, 35 percent of the effective transformational leaders have a high mercy gift. So, even though it's hard for you to lead, you can.

When enablers are able to lead, they have learned to either overcome or compensate for their preferred style of leadership. What I see effective enablers doing most often is gathering around themselves a group of more entrepreneurial types and allowing one of them to assume the role of executive pastor who handles the difficult issues, many of which will involve staffing. Sort of like the team of Moses, Aaron, and Jethro.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- From Put on Your Own Oxygen Mask First: Rediscovering Ministry, Bill Easum, with Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2004, pp. 79-81.