Growing Edge
Calvin Miller
July 1, 2001
Most pastors suffer the occasional bout of low self-esteem. Especially on the Mondays when we drink the blackest coffee we can find while we re-examine our calling.
Insufficient, inadequate, incapable, unnecessary—the pastorate has a way of making us wonder if we're really suited for this kind of leadership.
These feelings of insignificance, however, stem from a misunderstanding of what true leadership is. Having superficially trained ourselves on the burgeoning, popular leadership lore, we tend to prize our lives most when we see ourselves becoming powerful and influential—or in other words, becoming "necessary" to the churches we serve.
Eugene Peterson and Marva Dawn present a simpler, two-step philosophy of true success in their book, The Unnecessary Pastor (Eerdmans, 2000).
First, pastors should become Christ-centered.
Second, Peterson and Dawn advocate "just being there," helping God happen to the world, without needing to be the fulcrum of His work.
Peterson quotes Henri Nouwen on the matter: "The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love."
Peterson starts the book by reminding us of three misconceptions fueling the fallacy that a pastor must be necessary. First, calling is not defined by cultural presumption (that pastors be paragons of goodness and nicety). Second, it is not defined by personal ambition (to be a pastor of influence and power whose charisma and skill hold the congregation together and keep it focused). Third, calling is not defined by congregational expectations (that pastors be ...
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