I remember when my friend came to the church five years ago. He was confident God had called him to lead this church to new heights. He was typical of many church leaders with a fresh call--full of faith, vision and great expectations.
So what went wrong? Did my friend not hear God correctly? Was he the victim of an inherited problem in the church? Was it God's plan that my friend lead the church into oblivion?
I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to say that I have the answers to these questions, but over the past 35 years I have observed some pressures and internal tensions that cause clay pots to crack.
Twenty-four years ago, I went through a similar fiery furnace. I heard the stinging of the words, "Eugene, will you please consider tendering your resignation?" Twenty-four years have not erased the memory of that Friday afternoon. I understand how the natural man reacts when survival is at stake and our ego is threatened.
I know the fear that comes when the Great Potter reaches down, picks up the clay pot, inspects the crack and shakes His head. I will never forget the look of disappointment on the Potter's face as He set the pot on the "failures" shelf. For me, life on the shelf was agony. I experienced waves of bitterness and frustration, trying to understand what had happened. I felt like a leper as my pastoral colleagues abandoned me. When clay pots crack, the fracture is felt to the core of our being. I sensed that I had lost something that would never be regained.
It has been 35 years since I planted my first church. For 16 of those years I have viewed leadership from the perspective of the pulpit. Nineteen years I spent as a shelved leader observing leadership from the pew. During that time, I have talked with many pastors and church leaders whose leadership has been terminated. Here are some broad generalizations I have observed about myself and fellow pastors.
We pastors don't mind wearing the crown of success when the church is growing, but during the lean years, when things begin to fall apart, we act like the cap of failure belongs to someone else. Perhaps a faction in the church, the board or maybe the devil should wear the cap of failure? Our egos love to publish positive growth statistics but spiritualize and cover up downward trends using high-sounding jargon.
Many times I've asked myself, "Why am I so slow to admit failure?" Why this ecclesiastical stigma on failure? We don't believe in the doctrine of the infallibility of leadership, so isn't it natural that we will fail as leaders? Why is it so difficult to audibly speak the words, "I failed to reach my goals and objectives?"
Those are difficult words to speak, but speaking the words "I failed" closes a difficult chapter in our life and frees us to enjoy a new beginning. Fellow pastors, join the human race. A baptism of failure isn't the end of ministry. The Great Potter has been known to reach up to the shelf and recommission cracked clay pots.
Often clay pots fail because of their inability to differentiate between leadership by position and leadership by strength of character backed by heavenly authority. We pastors present ourselves to churches as leaders, but we forget that a call is really only an opportunity for us to show that God has called us to leadership.
This is especially true of younger leaders. However, older leaders would be wise to remember that there is nothing more pathetic than cracked old clay pots pretending they still have God's anointing. I've seen some who didn't know they had been put on the shelf.
Initially we occupy a temporary leadership position while the church watches to see if there is heavenly authority behind the oversight we give. As people see God working in and through our lives, they gradually give us permission to pastor and lead them. During this period of discovery, we need to be patient while God builds into our lives those gifts and skills by which He plans to authenticate our leadership. Leadership is a calling that is earned, not a position that is granted.
Our leadership is affirmed as we pass the conscious and sub-conscious integrity checks that God and the people subject us to. These integrity checks may be small things such as returning phone calls, how we talk in unguarded moments and how we discipline the use of our time. Integrity checks may be situations that test the purity of our motivation. At other times, we will face integrity checks on how we handle the power associated with the pastoral office. It takes time for a congregation to test the consistency of our inner convictions. How we respond to many of these small things gives members of the congregation a window on our private lives; from these things they learn how they may expect us to respond in a major crisis.
Our leadership is also affirmed by our consistent obedience to God's word. A congregation wants to know if we can recognize, understand and obey the voice of God. Instinctively, the congregation knows obedience begets obedience and rebellion begets rebellion. Obedience to God's Word puts gold into a pastor's leadership account.
Over the years, I have observed leaders become impatient with this slow process of establishing their leadership. At times, we try to leapfrog over the process by seeking leadership credibility through flashy programs, vision statements and projects. Many times, these are little more than desperate attempts to demonstrate that we are on the ball.
This is not a criticism of new programs and activities. It is a warning against using these techniques, tools and activities to give our leadership credibility. If these activities are of God, they will play a part in validating our leadership. However, on several occasions, I've noticed that just before a congregation pulls the plug on a pastor, he/she will engage in a frenzy of new activity and programs, which only results in the flock experiencing confusion and sometimes abuse.
When we observe a leader fluttering, we are timid about intervention. Few of us recognize when help is offered, nor do we know how to graciously welcome intervention. Why? Is it a problem of education or a question of spirituality or maturity? Why is the problem so pervasive, and what can be done about it?
I believe the principal cause of leadership failure grows out of our failure to establish strong, transparent relationships with leaders in the congregation and mature peers outside the congregation. Both are needed for a balanced perspective. In these relationships, our insecurities, inexperience and incompetence can safely be exposed without crushing our egos. To develop relationships of substance requires a costly investment of time. When you are busy saving the world, time is one commodity that is in short supply. Can we save the world if we fail to develop substantial relationships? How many pots have to crack before we get the message?
Churches, be patient, God is custom-building your leader. Pastors, be wise; let God establish your leadership and build spiritual authority in your life. When we try to speed up God's timetable, leadership and spiritual authority are still-born, and we land on the shelf, a cracked clay pot, unfit for the Master's use.
Eugene P. Harder is pastor of New Hope Community Church in North Vancouver, B.C.