Hello Pastors. If you do not know me, my name is Chris Nason, and I currently serve as the Regional Director of the Pikes Peak Baptist Association. Before this, I had the opportunity to serve at Souls Church of Manitou Springs, CO. I served initially as the church planter and then, after constituting in 2015, pastor of this interesting little fellowship in Manitou. If you have been in Colorado for any length of time, you have probably heard of Manitou Springs. It is the quirky little town beside Colorado Springs and at the base of Pikes Peak. It is known for liberal politics, relative spirituality, and anything that is contrary to a Biblical view of Jesus. The town has all things LGBTQ. It is known for alcohol and drugs. It is known for Wicca and Satanism. It is known for magic and sorcery. Yet, our church leadership team was able to plant a church, a conservative Southern Baptist church, in this place. How?
When I first went into Manitou, I did so having spent years studying the importance of leadership. I attended my first leadership summit in 1999. I had studied leadership in College. I had read every leadership book my pastor friends recommended. Yet every one of our brilliant outreach strategies that I thought would grow our church or open doors in the community rarely did. Growth was always a challenge, as it is in most Colorado churches. But we were able to, with very few people, make a tremendous impact in our local school system, in our local arts community, and even in our local government. You may be reading this and thinking I am writing an article on leadership. I am in a sense, but not in the way you think. The impact we made, the doors that were opened, had very little to do with me or my leadership. Most of the time, they had to do with a relationship either I or one of our leadership team members had made.
Now you may argue that relationship building is part of church leadership, and obviously, I had a strategy for making the “right” relationships. You would be wrong. As a church planter in a rocky area, any relationship we made was a victory. There was no strategy about it. We simply made sure we were around people. And it didn’t need to be me; our leadership team had just as much to do with making these relationships happen. At times, I even doubted how necessary I was to the whole plant. And that may be the biggest takeaway of my career in Manitou Springs. I was not that necessary.
I am not saying for a moment that the pastor’s role is unnecessary. God installed it and therefore it is His way. But Chris Nason wasn’t that necessary. Why is this truth important? After all, none of you reading this were part of Souls Church. I was not YOUR pastor. Why do you need to know that Chris Nason wasn’t necessary? Because you may be in a similar place I was. Perhaps you believe that if you hand off responsibility to others or give them responsibility and/or authority in your church, things will get messed up. Or maybe you think that if you took a day off, or a vacation, or even a sabbatical, you would come back to an empty building.
Pastor, if you find yourself in this spot, you have an image problem. You think your image is the most important one in the church. But I learned in Manitou that I was not essential to the planting of Souls Church. God could use anyone to plant. God could call anyone to pastor. He did not choose me because of my great vision development skills. He did not choose me because of my communication skills. He did not choose me because of any leadership skills. God invited me to be a part of what He was already doing in Manitou before Chris Nason ever moved to Colorado. And he is still working there today, without the presence of Chris Nason. Just as he will be at work in your church long after you have left.
Pastors, we are not that important. What we bring to the table is infantile compared to what God brings. Leadership study is great. But make sure you are spending more time in Scripture than you are in the latest Maxwell book. Vision-casting is essential, but make sure that the vision you are casting was born first in the heart of God before you claim it to be God’s will. Forming strategic relationships can be good, but remember that Jesus ministered to whomever was in front of him at the time. He stopped and ministered to the hemorrhaging woman even though she was not a source of gain. He ministered to the woman at the well even though she was an outcast in her own community. Modern leadership teachers would question a lot of what Jesus did, even the Christian ones. Yet, He is our leader. We emulate Him in how He shepherded.
Pastor, you are important. But you are not so important that God’s plans would be thwarted if you were not around. Chances are, when you leave your current ministry assignment, your church will put together a team and find another pastor. We are individually non-essential. The only essential is the Lord. That truth should free us up to stop carrying every burden in every area of the church. Take your day off. Take your vacation. If your church offers you a sabbatical, go! You are called to be like Jesus, but none of us can ever be Jesus. Learn to rely on Him. Learn to draw your vision and energy from Jesus. Press into Him because you know that, despite your education, despite your qualifications, despite your experience, apart from Jesus, we can accomplish exactly nothing.
