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The Australian weekly, The Bulletin, regularly searches for the 'young executive of the year'. The winners will have displayed 'success and flair in the broad range of skills required in business today. These include initiative, commitment, skills in managing people, planning and financial ability, grasp of opportunity and judgment. They will be men or women who have been exceptionally successful in their field, achieved measurable business goals and demonstrated outstanding performance...'

In his best-selling autobiography, Lee Iacocca asks legendary football coach Vince Lombardi his formula for success. 'First, teach the fundamentals; a player's got to know the basics of the game', he said. 'Next, you've got to keep him in line; that's discipline. The men have to play as a team. There's no room for prima donnas. And third: they've got to care for - to love - each other. Each guy says to himself: 'If I don't block that man, Paul's going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well so he can do his'. 'The difference between mediocrity and greatness', Lombardi said, 'is the feeling these guys have for each other. When you've got that sort of team spirit, you've got a winning team.'

If we found the 'complete' pastor what would he or she be like? How does a pastoral leader put together a winning team?

Some pastors seem to attract large congregations effortlessly, but for most it's uphill all the way. Some have got it all together in their parishes; others - no less godly, gifted or hard-working - live lives of quiet desperation. Why? The tough reality: pastors know that, under God, their leadership is the single most vital factor in the health and growth of a church. 'The difference between a growing church and a stagnant one is pastoral leadership. Gifted men build great churches and average men build average churches' (Elmer Towns). 'The pastor heads the list of factors common to growing churches in America. Show me a rapidly growing church, and I will show you a dynamic leader whom God is using to make it happen' (Peter Wagner).

(A caution, however: not all healthy churches are large, and not all large churches are healthy... It is better to talk about church health than church growth, effective rather than 'successful' leadership).

My ministry is with pastors, and I'd suggest the following composite of traits and ideas I've noted in the most effective of them. (Composite, because the perfect pastor doesn't exist!).

ACCOUNTABILITY - to God and to others - is the hallmark of any Christian leader. We are servants of the church (although the church is not our master - Christ is). Since Watergate, leaders - politicians, managers, teachers, doctors, and pastors - are expected to be accountable to their 'clients'. Authentic pastors welcome this trend. 'Six days invisible, the seventh incomprehensible' won't do anymore. Pastors have an even more awesome stewardship: accountability to God. In the timeless words of Richard Baxter in The Reformed Pastor:

'See that the work of saving grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others... lest you perish while you call upon others to take heed of perishing. Believe it, fellow-pastors, God never saved anyone for being a preacher, nor because that one was an able preacher; but because that preacher was justified, and sanctified, and consequently faithful in the Master's work'.

Be AMBITIOUS but remember ambition's a slippery idea: Paul was ambitious (2 Corinthians 5:9; Romans 15:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12), but so was Satan. Saints have a sublime indifference to temporal success or failure. In this competitive world, our business is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves. 'Wanting the church to grow' is OK, but our fallen natures warn us that can be a short step from 'wanting to build an empire'. One model is redemptive - humble, serving, costly; the other is violent - competitive and alienating.

Some pastors are Type A people - goal-oriented, busy, extroverted, church-builders. Others are Type B - quiet, supportive. If both exist on a team, be clear about leadership roles, spiritual gifts and ministry expectations, or there'll be trouble.

Effective pastors are BIG persons. They take genuine joy in the ministry-successes of others; so they won't be threatened by the giftedness of talented colleagues. They welcome feedback, instituting formal and informal channels to get it. They aren't conformists; they're prepared to take risks, even to fail occasionally. They're teachable - attending conferences, traveling to learn from others, getting ideas through reading. Although they know their ministry-priorities will not satisfy the expectations of all in their congregation, everyone is loved anyhow. Their egos don't have to be fed by parading success stories. They relate caringly to old and young, to the up-and-out and the down-and-out, to leaders and to the broken. They have cool heads and warm hearts, and don't develop 'messiah complexes'. And they are bigger than their own denomination; they're loyal, but don't have a 'my-group-right-or-wrong' attitude. They believe God gives insights and skills, by his Spirit, to Christians and mission groups who also acknowledge Jesus as 'Saviour, Lord, and God according to the Scriptures'.

'Left-handed dictionaries' poke fun at COMMITTEES. (A committee is a group that takes minutes and wastes hours ... the unfit selected by the unwilling to do the unnecessary... where the loneliness of thought is replaced by the togetherness of nothingness...). Most church committees are too large, too numerous, poorly structured and/or poorly managed. They constipate the church-as-organization and become sluggish, cumbersome, tedious, and indecisive. Who wants to serve on a committee whose work is alien, distasteful, time-consuming, irrelevant or incomprehensible - or if one doubts that all the work will change anything? One management expert says: 'Most people clearly prefer the pursuit of happiness to the happiness of pursuit. Only about a third of committee-members perform with little prodding, another third are moderately effective with some needling, the other third are no good at all and not worth the time to chase them up... Remember causes don't need workers so much as they need informed and dedicated advocates'.

If church-leaders spend more time in committees than in spiritual growth groups, that's a sign of the church's ill-health. I meet Baptist deacons who never pray with anyone, Anglican church-wardens who never study the Bible, Uniting Church elders who don't know how to lead someone to personal faith in Christ. That's just not good enough.

COMMUNITY. You won't survive as a pastor on your own. Find a prayer-partner, soul friend, sharing group, or, better, spiritual director. Research says pastors are lonely: they are the least likely to have a close friend.

In our preaching, should we be CULTURE-affirming or -denying or -confronting? Yes, yes and yes: it depends. Will Herberg (Protestant, Catholic, Jew) says Americans look mainly for one thing in their religion - security: social acceptance (mainline churches), or eternal security (the fundamentalists). Both produce 'civic religion', a 'cult of culture' validating culture and society without bringing them under judgement. 'Love your neighbour' sermons make love voluntary, having little to do with justice. Most churches espouse political neutrality, which is opting for the status quo.

Good managers DELEGATE ruthlessly. Pastor-teachers, says Paul, equip others for ministry (Ephesians 4:12). So if the pastor isn't training, training, training, he or she is likely to be doing things other could do, and thus denying them a ministry. Don't buy a dog and bark yourself! Run 'How to Help Your Friend' counseling courses. Coach elders and lay visitors 'on the job', taking them to hospitals and home visits. Leading worship services and preaching should be shared by those with competence (and only those). Delegation and training are the keys to breaking through the 200/300 barrier. Peter Wagner talks about insecure pastors who need to know everybody, including kids' (and even pets') names. They don't have a growth/delegation mentality. Being a 'rancher' isn't opting out of pastoral care, it's equipping under-shepherds. The church's small groups should be the main focus of pastoral support, with elders/small group leaders as the first 'port-of-call'.

But delegation isn't abdication. John Claypool says 'What often happens in life (is that) persons are given a difficult job and then, instead of struggling with them and helping them find their way, the group sits back and lets them struggle alone until at last they 'hang themselves'.

An opposite - and common - complaint is that pastors give jobs then meddle themselves (delegation minus training).

Delegation + training + mentoring = DISCIPLING. 'Go and make disciples' is still Jesus' mandate to his followers. How? The way he did it. Every pastor should be encouraged to find his 'three, twelve and seventy'. The pastors' task is to spend half their time with God, half with people and the rest in administration! And half the people-time should be invested in leaders. This is hard work, and tests a pastor's authentic spirituality, so it's easier to opt out and succumb to the less rigorous task of oiling church machinery.

We are models: we can't escape that. Pastors who model a thankful spirit generally see it reproduced in the congregation. So we mustn't complain too much: after 3 or 4 years we have imprinted our example onto those people. Indeed Bonhoefer (Life Together) says pastors should never complain about their people - not even to God!

ENCOURAGEMENT. Good pastors have a certain naivete about them. They see the best in others ('all his geese are swans' it was said of one great pastor). They take time to congratulate those who have helped, and build on people's strengths rather than reacting to their 'rough edges'. Praise is not flattery: sincere encouragement builds confidence; insincere flattery inflates one's ego. Praise never hurt anyone; silence or destructive criticism are killers! Encouragement draws the best out of people. Like Jesus, always be gentle with the wounded, and - only if you have earned the right - occasionally be tough with the lazy or those whose potential may be realized more by rebuke than a soft word. Helpful criticism should always - or nearly always - leave the person feeling he/she has been helped. Goethe said 'If you treat someone as they are they will stay as they are. If you treat them as if they were what they ought to be, and could be, they will become a bigger and better people'. (Aren't you glad the prodigal met his father before his elder brother?). James Stewart quotes this legend: God decided to reduce the weapons in the devil's armoury to one. Satan could choose which 'fiery dart' he would keep. He chose the power of discouragement. 'If only I can persuade Christians to be thoroughly discouraged', he reasoned, 'they will make no further effort and I shall be enthroned in their lives'.

An 80-year-old saint in Canada wrote me a note:

If he earns your praise bestow it; If you like him let him know it; Let words of true encouragement be said. Do not wait till life is over and he's underneath the clover; For he cannot read his tomb-stone when he's dead.

Suspect theology but wise psychology.

The most explicit New Testament reference to EXCELLENCE ('choose what is best', Philippians 1:9-11) suggests that it issues from a loving heart rather than an optimistic ego. This cuts across a lot of modern self-improvement/positive thinking ideas. 'Pastor, you can be a winner' presumes there'll be some losers, and that can be a pagan idea.

Life is a leaf of paper white Whereon each one of us may write His word or two, and then comes night. Greatly begin! though thou hast time But for a line, be that sublime... Not failure, but low aim is crime.

James Lowell

The books In Search of Excellence (Peters & Waterman) and A Passion for Excellence (Peters & Austin) point out that it was 'pretty difficult for management to mess up an American corporation in the 25 years following World War II'. Now that's all changed (as it has in the church). A passion for excellence 'means thinking big and starting small: excellence happens when high purpose and intense pragmatism meet'. It involves three dynamics: superior service to customers, constant innovation, and the consistent rewarding of creativity of everyone in the organisation. There are many constraints in churches encouraging mediocrity: let's resist them all, for God's sake.

Pastors of growing congregations are FACILITATORS. There are three ways of looking at church-people - scenery ('good number out this morning'), machinery (the way they relate functionally) and as complex, unique individuals. Good pastors are gifted 'networkers', devising dozens of ways for people (particularly newcomers) to relate to each other. Here's one idea: invite four or five families (mix them sensitively) to the manse/rectory for Sunday lunch once a month. Get each one to bring a casserole or dessert (enough to feed two families), and, if you need most of Sunday afternoon to prepare for evening preaching, they won't mind your suggesting a cut-off time. Another idea: get every family to fill in a care-card each Sunday, with feedback/prayer requests on the back. This is more than an attendance slip: it helps us keep in touch with each other responsibly.

GROWTH means many things: people coming to faith in Christ, growing in Christian maturity, being incorporated into the church, involvement in ministry in the church and in the world. All this is 'church growth'. (Have you heard of 'Little Bo Peep' churches? They lost their sheep and don't know where to find them!) But remember,

All growth is trouble! If comfort is your need better to sleep, curled around yourself forever shelled with indifference, like an unsown seed, like a smooth stone that cannot bleed or put forth leaves or know what the great have known!

(R.H. Grenville)

GOAL-SETTING is crucial. Goals should always be specific, attainable, measurable. Many Western churches balk at setting numerical membership-goals. That's OK: find others (50% in cell groups by 19??; contact every home in the neighborhood in the next two years; research unmet community needs before December). Set goals for health and growth should result.

A church leader's HOME LIFE is an important example to others (Titus 1:6,7). 'Workaholics' are not good models for new Christians. It is possible for a busy pastor to spend 3-4 nights a week at home in quality time with his or her family (you have to learn to work smarter rather than harder). After all, ministry begins inside our front door. And how do you answer this complaint, from a 14-year-old pastor's son: 'The church-people can interrupt our family time or meal-times whenever they want, but we're not allowed to interrupt you when you're with a church-person. So church must be more important to you than our family!'

Living in HOPE isn't the same as being an optimist. Optimism can actually be shallow and faithless, whereas hope is humble and trustful, whatever the circumstances. Hope in God assures us that he will be with us, in our agonies and ecstasies, as he was with his people in the past. So we major on our resources in Christ not the difficulties.

INNOVATION. Effective pastors are creative initiators. Earlier in my ministry I'd complain about the paucity of ideas/programs/ministries emanating from others. There was a good and bad side to that. I genuinely tried to encourage others to dream dreams and actualize visions. But sometimes it was a rationalization for my 'opting out'. As a leader I had to learn that if I didn't 'make it happen' I couldn't expect anyone else to. The pastor, David Watson used to say, is the 'cork in the bottle': that's where the problem usually lies. In business they talk about 'in-basket time management' - 'let's take each week/year as it comes'. That's not good enough. Effective pastors believe there's a better way. There's a holy restlessness about them. They don't throw out certain traditions because they're old, but because they're irrelevant. They get excited in brainstorming sessions, encouraging ideas - even the craziest ones - to flow freely.

We pastors must never forget that JESUS CHRIST is the head of the church, not us. The church isn't a social club with the pastor as president. Sometimes clergy talk about 'my' church, 'my' people, 'my' leaders: such language may be patronizing, however well-intentioned.

Pastors of dynamic churches KEEP AT IT. Longer pastorates are needed to build churches. But not every pastor is suited to the longer haul: some may have a healing or inspirational shorter-term ministry. However, in general, I believe pastors ought to begin every ministry with the idea 'I'm going to serve here for life', and not view each pastorate as a stepping-stone to a 'nicer' one. As husband and wife, so pastor and parish take each other 'for better or worse'.

LEADERSHIP is 'getting things done with and through others who want to do them!' The pastor is a 'leader of leaders'. The buck ends with us. The feckless Jim Hacker, MP, of 'Yes, Minister' put it succinctly: 'The people have spoken. I am their leader. I must follow them'. Leadership is God's gift to the church - every church - but is expressed variously. In tribal societies the consensus of the people is embodied in the decrees of the chief. Monarchical episcopates arise in times of persecution, but sometimes stifle lay-people's initiatives in democratic societies. Christian Brethren may have no formal 'pastoral leaders', but there'll always be an informal system. Congregational models maximize lay ownership of the church's goals, but increase potential for 'little despots' and schisms.

Autocratic leaders assume people won't do anything unless told to, discourage innovation, believe they know best, are often inflexible and insensitive, tend to use the group for their already-decided ends. Bureaucratic leaders believe the right parliamentary procedures will produce organizational rules and regulations to order behaviour without working too hard at enhancing human relationships. Paternalistic leaders identify almost completely with the group; there's the danger of hero-worship or the development of a personality cult; when the leader goes the group is helpless. Laissez-faire leadership leaves things alone: minimum direction, maximum individual freedom, non-directive maintenance of existing structures are the hallmarks here.

Effective leaders understand themselves, their co-leaders, their group, and the social milieu. They accurately assesses the climate and readiness for growth, know the gifts, limitations and responsibilities of their co-leaders, and act appropriately in the light of all these perceptions. They allows subordinates to take initiatives, or facilitate group-freedom as appropriate.

MOTIVATION is getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it! The leader/motivator must understand the group's needs (eg. for dependence or independence, love and 'belongingness', self-esteem and self-actualization), abilities (eg. knowledge, experience and skill, readiness to assume responsibility, tolerance of ambiguity), and perceptions (eg. interest in the idea, understanding of goals, expectations etc.). McGregor's well-known 'theory X' leaders assume people don't want to work, they dislike responsibility, and must be coerced into effort; theory Y suggests that people will work hard, accept responsibility, and be loyal to the organization's goals if they are 'handled right'. So when a pastor complains 'the blighters won't work' that pastor is making a judgment about his or her own leadership.

MISSION. In his seminal book Christianity Rediscovered Vincent Donovan talks about the 'choke law': once a church is established, pastoral and administrative work tends to choke out continuing evangelization. The 'static and paralyzing idea' of the mission compound replaces real mission. He quotes Hoekendijk: 'The idea of church without mission is an absurdity'. A church vestry minuted its solution to a declining membership: appoint two committees, to organise fetes and socials. 'Remember Jack? He used to run the hamburger stall. What's happened to him? A fete would bring him back to church...' Can you pick the fallacy here? There's another choke law operative in some churches: the legitimate desire to evangelize chokes out other aspects of mission, such as deeds of compassion and works of justice.

In every dynamic, healthy church the MUSIC is done well, and the musicians are clearly under the authority of the pastors. Anglican Canon Michael Green says, 'As soon as renewal hits your church, sack your organist!' There's an old saying: 'When the devil wants to enter a church he usually comes through the choir vestry!' Why? Music is the easiest church activity enjoyed for its own sake. A bad choir views the congregation as audience. A spirit-led choir worships, and leads the people of God into the presence of God.

NAMES. In a brotherhood - and sisterhood - let us be known by Christian names, rather than titles or offices. So, pastors, take 'Rev'. off the front and degrees off the back of your name: you don't need status that way (unless it's helpful in civic contexts). Here's a good word from the diary of Brother Roger of Taize: 'In the life of the church the shepherd, the one who is at the heart of the living cell which a community is, has only one charge, to be the servant of communion. [The shepherd] is there to keep alive what otherwise would dislocate and scatter... I have never wanted to be called 'prior' of our community. I am their brother. For the same reason, I refused the Legion of Honour. Why? Because today it is impossible for those holding positions of responsibility in the church to add honorific titles to their service of God'.

Pastors are NURTURERS, not primarily performing tasks but growing people. We nurture by example and by exhortation (in that order, I Peter 5:3; I Timothy 4:11,12; Titus 2:7).

ORGANIZING, says Norman Blaikie (The Plight of the Australian Clergy) ranks 'seventh in importance, third in terms of time spent, seventh in satisfaction, and fifth in terms of effectiveness' of eight key pastoral roles. (Eighth in both importance and time: social reformer!). Organizing, he says, is the role that causes clergy the greatest frustration. Astute pastors are constantly looking for administrators: is someone about to retire who could help - even without cost to the church?

PRAYER, preaching and planning are three key clergy roles. When Moses' father-in-law told him he was killing himself, he suggested three priorities: teaching the Lord's statutes, intercession, and appointing co-judges. Jesus, too, was a teacher, a person of prayer, and delegated ministry very early to his disciples. After a social welfare foulup, the apostles appointed special helpers so they could be devoted to prayer and the ministry of the Word. These remain the top three priorities for spiritual leaders. In Spirituality for Ministry, Urban T. Holmes says prayer is to spirituality as eating is to hunger. Prayer, he says, is more than a 'wish-list'. The deepest prayer involves contemplation ('knowing ourselves in order that we might know God so that we might know ourselves') and 'coinherence' (bearing in God's presence the pain of those we serve). Henri Nouwen in Reaching Out wrote, 'Without the Bible, without silent time and without someone to direct us, finding our way to God is very hard and practically impossible'. Most clergy confess to reading the Bible for sermon-ideas or clarification of dogma rather than 'praying the Bible'.

Good PREACHING - by itself - will not grow a church anymore, but bad preaching will certainly empty it! The era of preaching is by no means over - I believe it never will be. In a better-educated church a declamatory style ought to give way to what John Claypool (The Preaching Event) calls 'confessional' preaching. Good preaching is evangelical (people won't follow an uncertain sound) and the best method, I believe, is expository. However, as Alfred North Whitehead perceptively stated, 'religions commit suicide when they find their inspiration in their dogmas'. Christianity is essentially relational, so preaching must 'relate' too. Some clergy seem to believe they 'supply religion' to people in their homilies. A once-a-week sermon is a very thin diet for a growing Christian: many people 'attend Church' regularly but can't say what God is doing in their lives. There ought to be bookstalls, audio- book- and video-libraries, printed sermon outlines, study-guides, etc., to supplement the spoken word. And you can pick a preacher who isn't doing careful study and reflection in the first three minutes. Our people deserve better. An hour in the study for each minute in the pulpit was Fosdick's suggestion!

Good leaders are good PLANNERS. If we fail to plan we plan to fail: to make no plans is a plan in itself. Planning 'clothes our dreams'. Good planners know their goal, think backwards by writing down the steps needed to accomplish that goal, working out the time, money, and effort needed to complete each step, scheduling dates when each step takes place.

Pastors ought to be well QUALIFIED for their calling. What does this mean? Academic qualifications are important (Moses and Paul were both highly educated), particularly if our church-people are getting a better education these days. However, spiritual and moral attributes dominate the lists in the pastoral epistles (I Timothy 3:1-3, Titus 1:5-9, 2:1-15). Truly great pastors are stretching themselves theologically; they do short courses in the social and management sciences; they're reading widely in many secular fields. But above all they are striving for righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness, running their best in the race of faith (1 Timothy 6:11,12).

RELAX! All the great leaders in Scripture spent a disproportionate amount of their lives in deserts. 'Stress' (in physics) is the impacting of outside forces on a body distorting it. Psychologically, it results from trying to do too much, living in the fast lane. 'Burnout' results from a combination of idealism + helping others sacrifically + vulnerability to excessive demands - fatigue and frustration. It's 'compassion fatigue'. You're not meant to work harder than your Creator: take a day off each week religiously. Develop hobbies. I met a pastor who goes skydiving ('you don't think about anything else doing that!'), another makes stained glass objects, another joined the Country Fire Authority ('putting out other kinds of fires!'), another restores old furniture. Others read a novel, play golf, go to a movie. Take a sabbatical after six or seven years, and insist your leaders 'rest' after six years in office (write that into your constitution). Every day 'waste time with God' as Sheila Cassidy suggests (Prayer for Pilgrims). You spend time helping clients, parishioners; you give time to those whom you love. Someone said: 'We tend to worship our work, to work at our play, and to play at our worship...'

Church STRUCTURE should reflect priorities. If worship (all we do, gathered and scattered, to the praise of our God) community (enhancing, Christianly, the lives of others), formation (the process by which the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the heart and mind of the child of God so that he/she might become like the Son of God) and mission (everything we do in the world - evangelism, acts of mercy and justice) are the only purposes of the church (and they are), then most of our time should be devoted to these. Finance, administration, music, buildings, special interest groups, and constitutions are means to those ends. The degree to which church organizations devote time and energy to means rather than ends is the degree to which that church is dying! That is, most committee-time should be spent discovering ways to enhance worship, fellowship, formation and mission, not merely turning the wheels of the church-as-organization.

SINCERITY, n., freedom from pretence or deceit; honesty; genuineness. When leading worship, the pastor, too, genuinely worships (doesn't shuffle papers, peer over the hymn book to check who's not there etc.). Prayers are from the heart, whether read or extempore. Pastors love evangelism, and don't merely issue exhortations about it. (Recent surveys among evangelical pastors tell us they believe evangelism is very important, but they don't see themselves as taking primary responsibility for it!). Every letter, phone call, visit, committee meeting is an opportunity for the sincere pastor to move people a little further into the Kingdom.

THEOLOGY. Ordination for ministry (for every Christian) is a gift from God: given, I believe at baptism. The whole church is pastoral, priestly, prophetic. Ordination for pastoral/priestly/prophetic leadership, is a special gift to the church. Theologies of ministry and ordination vary, but * it's a ministry of the Word, so pastor-teachers will daily soak their minds and hearts in Scripture; * the preached Word is Christ's Word, more than mere human words.

Managing TIME and volunteers are clergy's two key hassles. James Stewart (Heralds of God) writes: 'Beware the professional busy-ness which is slackness in disguise. The trouble is we may even succeed in deceiving ourselves. Our diary is crowded. Meetings, discussions, interviews, committees, throng the hectic page. We are driven here, there, everywhere by the whirling machinery of good works. We become all things to all people. Laziness? The word, we protest, is not in our vocabulary. In all this unending tyranny of routine the central things are sacrificed or carried through inadequately...'

UNDERSTANDING people and groups (psychology and social psychology) can be learned, to some extent. More and more pastors are buying cheap 'remainders' to keep abreast of insights into these fields. One example: in any group committed to an ideology (eg. every church), people will range across a spectrum from radicals, through progressives, conservatives, to traditionalists. Radicals want to change everything, progressives many things, conservatives some things, traditionalists nothing. Radicals are angry (concerned for justice as impersonal structures rip off the poor); traditionalists are fearful (with a great emotional investment in the status quo, so 'law and order' is their catchcry). Prophets (eg. Jesus with the pharisees) are always radical, priests are traditionalist, passing on a tradition (cf. Jesus' teaching about the law). Incidentally, if pastors are perceived to be too prophetic or traditionalist, they're in for trouble with people at the other end! Pastors as change-agents will note that change cannot be commended by people two removes away. For example, conservatives don't listen to radicals, but may be persuaded by a progressive.

Pastors of dynamic churches are VISIONARY: they 'envision' a certain shape for their church. I heard an effective leader tell a pastors' conference: 'Figure out what the big idea is and give your life to it!' Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God (Carey). These pastors are dreaming dreams about all sorts of outreach ministries. Knowing that '80% is full', they're weighing options: shall we extend (both buildings and parking), relocate, multiply Sunday services, plant a daughter-church? (They have an option to buy all the properties surrounding the church's). They're constantly inventing theoretical structures for their church's government: how can we operate with more people-ownership of our goals, but with fewer people-hours in administration?

Pastors differ as to whether VISITATION is a bane or blessing. We can all learn to visit from love of sheep rather than from the tyranny of obligation (I visit you, so you come to my church). Tom Allen (The Face of My Parish) says: 'Unless our visitation is truly pastoral it is irrelevant. There is little virtue in seeing every member of our congregation once a year if our visit is spent in amiable conversation. It may raise us in the esteem of our people. But assuredly it is distracting us from the work of God'.

The management of VOLUNTEERS is the subject of burgeoning literature. Volunteers serve without financial remuneration. They are committed to a cause, desire to meet a challenge, wish to contribute to the well-being of others, have some spare time, and enjoy the gratification of a job well done. The theory that if you give someone a job so they'll become active in the church generally isn't true. The best way to select volunteers is not 'from the floor', but through the careful work of a nominating committee. One expert says 'You don't elect the best people, you pick them'. And you don't put people on committees simply to fill a quota or membership requirement. Volunteers need to feel they're both doing something useful, and participating in an opportunity for self-growth. They need recognition and appreciation, training, involvement in the planning and setting of goals, development of team-spirit, delegation of responsibilities, and evaluative procedures.

We pastors need special WISDOM (Ephesians 1:17, James 1:5) for living a good and humble life (James 3:13), and for counseling and instructing others (Colossians 3:16). More conflicts would see 'win-win resolutions' if we were wiser. Pastors, don't move too far or fast until you've developed trust. Don't share your dreams, visions and goals too early: those attracted to the church by a previous pastor's aspirations will misinterpret your enthusiasm. Public anger or rebuke by a pastor is usually counter-productive. Even secular psychologies are now counseling self-control rather than 'letting it all hang out'. Listen to feeling-tones, hidden agendas, and past hurts when people react irrationally: as an authority-figure, you'll sometimes be 'dumped on' (counselors call it 'transference').

WORSHIP - the individual and the gathered community serving the Lord - is the essence of all we do. To what extent would you describe your 'worship services' as celebration? Sometimes they're more like funerals than wedding-feasts! How often are we 'lost in wonder, love and praise' before our God?

Healthy pastors and churches promote XENOPHILIA (love of other or unlike persons) and don't suffer from XANTHISM (a disease which yellows the skin)! You draw the implications!

YOURSELF. Pastoral ministry sometimes attracts maladjusted persons - the narcissist (others' admiration and dependence feeds their self-image); the 'over-generous' (kind and reassuring, but whose chronic anxiety is alleviated by being oversympathetic, overprotective, too willing to give to others - particularly 'clinging vine' types); the autocratic (power-oriented, needing docile followers giving obedience, respect and maybe flattery). Pastors are the last professionals to visit members of the opposite sex alone in their homes, so these three groups are ripe for seduction.

Pastor, you're not perfect, you're not always a hero or a mature sophisticate! Watch your self (Acts 20:28, I Timothy 4:16). 'Gold, glory, girls' are three of the 'fiery darts' the devil aims at under- (or over-) developed egos.

Do you and your spouse plan regular communication-times? One method: Set aside an hour; pray, then write feelings down for 10 minutes; exchange papers, and go off alone to read each other's; after 15 minutes, discuss. Four rules: (1) don't defend behaviour the other finds objectionable; (2) don't attack verbally; (3) don't argue about the factuality of what the other has said; (4) if there are heated statements, don't react heatedly: repeat back the essence of what the other has said to try to understand it.

It's fine to be ZEALOUS says Paul (Galatians 4:18) 'so long as the purpose is good'. Spending the one short life you're given caring for people in churches is a good purpose, it's hard, glorious work, and the rewards are out of this world!

Therefore to thee it was given Many to save with thyself; And at the end of thy day, O faithful shepherd! to come Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.

- Matthew Arnold, Rugby Chapel.