Should We Ever Pastor Alone?

I don’t know that I’ve ever shared with you my pastoral journey.

I started at a mega-church, director of adult education. It was a great fit, lots of young leaders on the team. This is where I first identified my pastoral calling. It was hard work, and a lot of rough edges, but I learned so much.

From there, I was appointed to my very first lead pastor charge. A wonderful church that had been struggling in a suburb, but with that small-town feel to it. For the first three years I wondered when they were going to come in and take it all away. I didn’t know what the next move was, but I acted as I did.

By God’s grace, the church grew. And grew some more. Every week I was pastoring the largest church I had ever pastored.

I stayed at that church for almost eight years before moving into this role at Spirit & Truth.

About four months ago I accepted an offer to go back on a church staff (part-time) as the pastor of Disciple Making. And in the midst of this transition, I have been thinking about the teams I’ve been on. Both as an associate and as a lead pastor - it has led me to the very real question:

Are we ever meant to pastor alone?

In the three churches I have worked on, I’ve noticed something very real - the burden of pastoral leadership is better when it is shared.

When I worked at the mega-church there was a leadership team that made all the decisions. Now that I’m back on a church staff with multiple pastors we discuss all the pastoral issues.

And at this point, the loneliest time I was ever in ministry was when I was the only pastor on staff. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great team, and I loved them. But their job wasn’t to be a “pastor” on the staff. They didn’t share in those types of burdens or decisions.

There were so many pastoral issues that left me feeling isolated. And I know this happens in the local church every week. Mid to small-church pastors are preaching, discipling, running the business of the church, and making decisions that impact hundreds of people.

In Luke’s Gospel (10:1-23) we see Jesus send out the 72 in pairs. Maybe He was doing this as an instructional point for church leadership. While we don’t have much to suggest that these pairs were “pastors” per se (or at least in the way we understand the role today), what we do know is they were sent out for a purpose.

He sent them out in pairs to do ministry. He sent them out to preach the Good News, and do much of the work we are still doing today.

Maybe it’s time we took a page from Jesus’ practices?

If you are a pastor pastoring alone, let me empathize with your struggle. I know it’s hard. Maybe this year it’s time to find some help.

If there is anything we can do to help at Spirit & Truth, please let us know - our heart is for the local church, because we’ve all been there before!