There are also some uncomfortable issues in this ministry. We call this a “paradigm shift.” Changing the way we have thought and worked for many years is not easy. I once heard someone say, “Don’t come to the ministry if you are over 50.” Perhaps they believe that older pastors are less willing to change their mindset. In some cases, they may simply be comfortable with the way they have always done ministry and do not want to change their style.
One of the greatest challenges in LPM is giving ownership of the ministry to laypeople. When ownership is first given to the laity, they will make many mistakes. We have to be willing to wait while they discover, learn, and mature through those mistakes. They will learn and grow through the process.
If a pastor cannot wait for that period of growth, laypeople will never mature. They will remain at a “baby level” because they are never given enough freedom to practice, make mistakes, and learn from their experiences.
One pastor once complained to me that his congregation—even his leaders, such as elders and deacons—never seemed to grow.
He said, “I have taught them and preached to them for the last twenty or thirty years, but they are still the same—yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”
I asked myself, What is the problem? Why are they not growing?
It is not simply the laypeople’s problem, nor is it their responsibility alone. In many cases, the problem begins with the pastor. This particular pastor never properly trained his people, and he never gave them enough authority or freedom to do ministry themselves. As a result, they could not grow.
He wanted his church to grow, but in some ways, he did not allow his church to grow.
Am I wrong? No. I believe this is true. He complained that his congregation was not growing, but, without realizing it, he had created a system that kept them from growing.
I began to understand why he could not make it work. First, the people did not know what to do. Second, the pastor himself had never been properly trained to motivate, equip, and give freedom to laypeople.
There is a chain of responsibility here. If there are problems in the church, they are often the pastor’s problem. If there are problems in pastors, they may be the seminary’s problem. And if there are problems in the seminary, they may ultimately be the professor’s problem.
I am convinced of this because I discovered these patterns many years ago. In the end, professors may not have taught their students about the challenges they would soon face in ministry. By the time pastors discovered these problems in their churches, it was often already too late.
That is why pastors need to be taught not only how to preach, but also how to equip people, give them ownership, release authority, and patiently allow them to grow—even when they make mistakes. Mistakes are not necessarily signs of failure.