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HEALTHY PASTORS

Every time I travel by plane, I listen to the routine safety information. Not long ago, I heard something new. The flight attendant said, “In the event of a loss in cabin pressure, a mask will drop down. Place the mask on yourself first and then place the other mask on your child.” When I heard her words, they struck me as being backward. The “parent” in me recoiled. Why would I not want to take care of my child first? Later I learned the reason. When an airplane suddenly loses pressure, you have about ten seconds to get oxygen before you begin to lose consciousness. By placing the mask on yourself first, you ensure that you will be able to take care of your child.

I have come to see this as a parable of Christian leadership today. In servant-oriented, care-giving vocations, it is easy to think of others before we think of ourselves. In fact, we are often rewarded for doing so. Over time we become adept at giving ourselves for the sake of others, burning the candle at both ends, and creating the impression that we are perpetually available to anyone who happens to think they might need us. We generate a very “sacrificial” image, but we do not realize that we are “losing consciousness” in the process.

Until about five years ago, there was a tremendous emphasis upon “church growth.” Needless to say, a lot of good has come from this emphasis. But somewhere along the way astute observers began to realize that frenetic activism in the name of “growth” was producing as much baggage as it was blessing. Leaders were overextending themselves and suffering consequences never intended by the original church growth advocates. The leaders in the church growth movement realized a new emphasis was needed, not church growth but “church health”—a commitment to pastoral leadership that did not lead to pastoral casualties.

This “new” discovery is, in fact, a return to the NT perspective encapsulated in Paul’s final words to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28: “Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers (NRSV).” When these words finally sunk in about ten years ago, I realized I had not only returned to a scriptural view of ministry, but I had received a divine challenge to radically reorient my perspectives and my tendencies. I am still in the process of making that reorientation (along with a growing number of clergy), but I know that I can never go back to the “quantified” (more is better) activism that once defined and dominated my life. Without reducing a commitment to the growth of the church, we are increasing a commitment to its health, beginning with ourselves.

Keeping Watch over Ourselves
What does this mean for those of us who are called to a vocation of ordained ministry? More specifically, What does it mean for those of you who are in seminary preparing to enter soon your own places of service? You are taking numerous courses designed to help you be a good “care giver.” What might it mean to use your days in seminary to become a good “care taker” as well? What might it mean, to return again to Paul’s words, to “keep watch over yourselves,” not as an expression of selfishness, but as a means of survival? Let’s look at the little book of Titus as a lens to see a number of qualities that work to help us become “healthy pastors.”

First and foremost, character. Character is the bedrock on which we stand and the artesian spring from which much of the rest of our life and work must flow. The term for it in Titus is “godliness” (1:2). It is the comprehensive excellence that saturates our being and our doing—referred to in historic Christianity as “holiness of heart and life.” It is the composite description of integrity that Paul lists for Titus in 1:6-8. If you want to be a healthy pastor, pursue godliness.

Second, communion. No amount of work can substitute for the primary task to “abide in Christ” (John 15). No amount of public image can make up for your time alone with God. Paul commends it to Titus in the blessing, “grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior” (1:4). Neither “grace” nor “peace” is conveyed automatically or magically. The two qualities so necessary for ministry become real in us only as we dwell in Christ and invite him to dwell in us. “Grace” keeps us from becoming cynical and “peace” keeps us from becoming reactive. If we are to be healthy pastors, we must be in communion with him who is the Great Physician—the one who knows how to keep us positive and stable all along the way.

Third, conviction. Conviction is not being certain to the point of being obnoxious. Conviction is not an emotion that manifests itself through volume or emphasis. Conviction is “clarity”—that is, moving into your ministry knowing what it is you are supposed to do. Titus had conviction; he knew what he was supposed to do. Paul placed him on Crete to “put in order what remained to be done, and [to] appoint elders in every town” (1:5). Conviction provides vision and boundary, confidence and limit. Healthy pastors are those who are clear about what they are supposed to do, and they do it with the assurance that God is with them.

Fourth, competence. In Paul’s day, competence came largely through apprenticeship. Titus was left on Crete because he had fared well in the apostolic school of leadership. The result was Titus’ ability (and that of other elders also) to “have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it” (1:9). These words go a long way in describing the competence we need to be effective ministers in the church. They are the reminder that preparation for ministry is never time wasted, but always time devoted. Healthy pastors are competent pastors.

Fifth, contextualization. In chapter two of Paul’s letter to Titus, we see this quality through the assignment to minister differently to different groups of people: older men, older women, younger women, younger men, and slaves. There is no “one-size-fits-all” understanding of the ministerial task. And furthermore (as the epistle makes clear), all of it is to be done recognizing the unique challenges found on the island of Crete. E. Peterson has coined what he calls the pastor’s question: “Who are these people, and how can I be with them, so they can become what God wants to make of them by grace?” It is the question of context. Healthy pastors always know where they are and that they are called to care for different people in different ways.
   
Sixth,community. Paul left Titus on Crete, but he did not leave him alone. He left him within a church, and he charged him to form a cadre of leaders with whom he would fellowship. The epistle itself and Titus’s ministry make no sense if taken out of the context of community. The word “church” may be singular in the English language, but in God’s language “church” is always plural. Healthy pastors are those who live in community, who empower community, and who rejoice in the accomplishments of community.
   
Seventh, commission. The third chapter of the letter brings it all to a proper conclusion. Titus’ ministry proves itself in the lives of those to whom he ministers. It is not “his” ministry; it is Christ’s ministry—the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of people enabling them to be “subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, [and] to be ready for every good work” (3:1). Healthy pastors are those who evaluate what they do in terms of those they serve. They are not “careerists” or “ladder climbers.” They are servants who understand that the Bible’s definition of success is always in relation to fidelity to mission.

As you spend your days in seminary, could you hope for, pray for, or work for anything of any more value than these qualities? This essay only scratches the surface. I urge you to read and re-read the letter to Titus, and the Pastoral Epistles. Finally, read the four Gospels where you will see the same qualities exemplified in the life of Jesus. It will then be crystal clear to you that no amount of “professionalism” or “public image,” no amount of “success” or “status,” and no amount of “growth” or “performance” will ever supercede the need for health and wholeness.

In relation to this challenge, I want to conclude my essay by suggesting some persons and resources to help you continue probing the subject of “healthy pastors.” Read everything you can find by E. Peterson, G. MacDonald, and H. Nouwen. Get L. Ford’s Transforming Leadership: Jesus’ Way of Creating Vision, Shaping Values & Empowering Change (InterVarsity, 1993), R. Anderson’s The Soul of Ministry: Forming Leaders for God’s People (Westminster John Knox, 1997), and P. Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (Jossey-Bass, 1999). Dip into the classics and be guided by John Chrysostom as translated by Graham Neville in Six Books On the Priesthood (St. Vladimirs Press, 1996), Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Rule, and R. Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor (Banner of Truth, 1981). Familiarize yourself with publications from the Alban Institute and the Pastoral Ministries Department of Focus on the Family. Log onto the Internet and glean insights from Pastor Care (www.pastorcare.org) and The Parsonage (www.parsonage.org).
   
But more than the reading and research, determine that you will stay close to Jesus, the one who gave us both the Great Commission and the invitation to “come away by alone to a quiet place and rest for a while” (Mark 6:31). Stay close to the one who knows when to send you forth and when to slow you down. Be in the presence of the one who is the Lord of salvation and the Lord of Sabbath—the one who is as concerned about your health as he is about the health of those you are called to serve.

Dr. Steve Harper, John Wesley Fellow and the VP/Dean of the Florida Campus of Asbury Theological Seminary.