I deeply respect what pastors do for a living. I appreciate the sacrifice, hard work, dedication, and effort they bring to the table every week. “Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.” 1 Timothy 3:1 (NIV)

Pastoring has become increasingly complex. According to Barna Group, churchgoers expect their pastor to juggle an average of sixteen major tasks! Good luck with that. The demands, expectations, and sheer number of problems pastors deal with tend to confuse his or her priorities. “What do I work on first? Where do I start? What should I prioritize?” Sometimes a pastor’s priorities get set by the person who makes the most noise. Not a winning strategy.

I’d like to sketch out an approach to pastoral leadership that can be applied regardless of our temperament, situation, our gifts, and/or resources. I think this approach has the potential to reduce role confusion and promote health.

I’d like to propose five (NOT sixteen – I’ve cut your work by two-thirds already!) priorities of every pastor:

The pastor’s relationship with God

Well duh. “I know that already John.” There’s a difference between knowing and doing. A 2007 Francis Schaeffer Institute study revealed that for 70% of pastors, the only time they get in the Word is when they do message prep. Pretty scary, huh? If we’re not careful, passion for teaching/preaching can crowd out passion for Jesus. Paul David Tripp writes: “The heart is the inescapable X-factor in ministry.” This first priority places a premium on developing our relationship with God.

The pastor makes tough calls

Here’s an example of a tough call from Paul’s letter to Titus. “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Titus 3:10-11 (NIV)

Pastor, if you don’t make the tough calls, who will? Judgment calls like the one in Titus 3 require a great deal of thought, prayer, wisdom and humility… but in the end… they call for courage. Paul was not advising Titus to adopt an “off with their heads” approach. Rather, he highlighted the mistake of swinging to the other extreme: putting up with or ignoring divisive behavior. When pastors avoid making tough calls, they suffer and so does their church.

The pastor raises up and releases leaders

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”2 Timothy 2:2

Imagine what would happen if every pastor prioritized scouting, developing, and releasing talented people to serve. How much better would their life be? A more accurate measure of a pastor’s success is the number of quality leaders he/she reproduces and releases, rather than the number of people who attend on a Sunday morning service.

The pastor preaches the Word of God

Being interesting every Sunday is a grind sometimes, isn’t it? In a healthy leadership model, pastors carve out time to do proper Bible study and interpretation. I encourage pastors to try building blocks of study time into their office hours. I suspect the focused block approach will help them to prepare better messages in less time. Skimping on prep time leads to less than stellar teaching/preaching. Commit to providing a nutritious meal for your people each week.

The pastor stays in touch with his people

Full-time pastoral ministry can insulate a pastor from the challenges his people deal with in the marketplace. Let me try to describe the current marketplace for you:

It’s extremely competitive and increasingly vulgar. Your people are asked to do more work with fewer resources and sometimes, for less pay. They tend to overwork out of fear: fear of losing their job, fear of not having enough money, fear of the opinions of their boss or their peers regarding their work ethic. Compounding the problem, many of them work for knuckleheaded managers.

As best you can, try to understand these marketplace realities and allow them to shape your ministry approach, teaching, preaching, and expectations of what your people can and cannot do.

Five priorities. God. Tough calls. Leadership development. Message prep. Staying in touch. In the light of these five priorities, can I encourage you to take a step back and rethink your leadership approach? Because if you learn to pastor this way, you increase the chances of staying healthy. You’ll stay on assignment. You’ll be a better leader. I think you’ll enjoy leading more. And I suspect you’ll be more productive for God.