The Pastor as the Tool Man
You see them driving around most urban areas and even venturing out in small town USA. Their destinations are automotive garages and any other place of business that uses tools. Most of the vehicles are large vans or panel trucks and carry such logos as “Snap-On Tools,” or “Matco.”
What if it were the job of these drivers to rush from place to place tightening, untightening and doing all the actual mechanical repairing of the vehicles? Imagine the mechanics in these shops calling on the tool man every time they needed a bolt tightened or a screw adjusted, sitting around waiting for them to arrive and do the work. It is a comical scene based on the ridiculous; hundreds of mechanics waiting for the help of few exhausted and distraught tool men.
The truth of the matter is, these tool men in their vans only provide the tools. It is the mechanics who do the work.
Sometimes we in the local church can actually get caught up in a similar comedy of errors. A church can look to their pastor as the one whom they hire to do their ministry for them. A pastor can also be at fault for allowing himself to be like the misguided tool man trying to do it all himself.
The truth of the matter is, in God’s economy of work in the local church it is the individual people in the congregation who are called by God to do the bulk of the ministry. The pastor’s job is to equip them for their ministry.
What if it were the job of these drivers to rush from place to place tightening, untightening and doing all the actual mechanical repairing of the vehicles? Imagine the mechanics in these shops calling on the tool man every time they needed a bolt tightened or a screw adjusted, sitting around waiting for them to arrive and do the work. It is a comical scene based on the ridiculous; hundreds of mechanics waiting for the help of few exhausted and distraught tool men.
The truth of the matter is, these tool men in their vans only provide the tools. It is the mechanics who do the work.
Sometimes we in the local church can actually get caught up in a similar comedy of errors. A church can look to their pastor as the one whom they hire to do their ministry for them. A pastor can also be at fault for allowing himself to be like the misguided tool man trying to do it all himself.
The truth of the matter is, in God’s economy of work in the local church it is the individual people in the congregation who are called by God to do the bulk of the ministry. The pastor’s job is to equip them for their ministry.