Jeremy L. Berg

From William Willimon’s definitive book on ordained ministry entitled Pastor.

“The history of pastoral care in America is a history of the adoption of inappropriate models of leadership by the clergy. This stands as a warning to us of the perils of uncritical adoption of secular techniques and models of leadership…..”

“The pastor as manager can be an all too appealing image for pastors who lack the creativity and courage to do more than simply maintain the status quo of the church — to keep the machinery oiled and functioning rather than pushing the church to ask larger, more difficult questions about its purpose and faithfulness. Pastors are called to lead, not simply to manage. Many of us serve churches that have become dysfunctional, unfaithful, and boring. Having lost a clear sense of our mission, we diffuse ourselves in inconsequential busyness. Lacking a sense of the essential, we do the merely important. Any pastor who feels no discontent with the church’s unfaithfulness, who is too content with inherited forms fo the church, is not just being a bad manager, but has made the theological mistake of surrendering the joyful adventure of pastoral ministry for the theologically dubious office of ecclesiastical bureaucrat.”

p. 63