Bill Ashpole Ministries: An Article the Pastor Bill Ashpole has written and wants to share with you.

Let the Pastor Pastor

Why are we losing pastors and experiencing poor growth in our churches? I believe there is a connection between these two trends that must be addressed. Concern about them within our fellowship alone will not bring needed change; we must be willing to do something about it and then do it. Specifically, we must let the pastor pastor the church as God leads him. We must not let control issues and those grabbing for power suck the life out of our churches, inhibit our effectiveness in reaching the lost, and discourage and wound pastors in the process.

When my wife and I started out in ministry on our honeymoon, it was with the call of God on our lives to pastor. During the next 60 years, God strategically placed us in the churches He wanted us to pastor, including 32 years in district leadership. It has been wonderful to experience the reviving, life-giving, and transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our great movement. It was exciting, too, when the Assemblies of God was declared for several years in the 1980’s to be the fastest growing denomination in the United States!

Sadly, our growth began to level off, pastors began leaving pastoring, and we lost people from our churches. I began to grieve in my spirit over what was occurring in our fellowship. Today, the question remains, “What is happening to us?”

What I see is that there is a battle going on in our churches and fellowship over control issues. We have veered away from a Theocratic ministry to democratic control. Instead of pastors able to fulfill their scriptural role to lead the church, quite often they find themselves subject to the democratic control of the board or groups within the church. How can a pastor lead the church the way the Lord is directing him to under this unscriptural and dysfunctional leadership model?

He can't.

In a survey conducted by the Francis Schaeffer Institute of 1050 pastors, 78% reported that they had been forced to resign their pastoral position and 63% stated that they had been fired at least twice. The number one reason cited by 52% of the pastors for the forced departure was “organizational and control issues. A conflict arose that forced them out based on who was going to lead and manage the church—pastor, elder, key lay person, faction,. . .”

http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=36562

Francis Schaeffer Institute Statistics on Pastors, by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir

Not surprisingly, this same reason is also the number one reason why pastors choose to leave pastoring altogether. “Church people are not willing to go the same direction and goal of the pastor. Pastors believe God wants them to go in one direction, but the people are not willing to follow or change.” Provided by The Fuller Institute, George Barna, and Pastoral Care Inc. http://pastoralcareinc.com/WhyPastoralCare/Statistics.php

As a result, instead of being able to focus on fulfilling their pastoral role and God-given vision for the church, too many of our pastors find themselves restricted by the control of others within it. This should not be. When a pastor adheres to our doctrinal statement and lives a moral, godly life, then we need to let him pastor as the Lord Jesus leads him to direct the church.

In my more than six decades of ministry, I've observed that people tend to want a pastor that fits their own ideas instead of the pastor that God has brought to them. Could we handle a Moses, a Paul, a Peter or even Jesus Himself as our pastor?

After we pray, fast, search, interview, select, and bring a man of God into our church, we need to let him be the pastor. We must respect his leadership role and support the vision the Lord has given him. As a district leader, I was called in many times to conduct business meetings in churches struggling with control issues. I witnessed board members, factions, or individuals within the church who wanted their pastor to only do what they wanted to be done. They would not allow their pastor to pastor as God was leading him to lead.

Two board members of one church told me that that their pastor was young and they were trying to educate him so that he could do a better job of pastoring. I replied to them, “When did the church or God ask you to be the leader over your pastor? It is one thing to encourage and be a help to your pastor, quite another to make him do what you want him to do. It seems to me that you want to take complete control of this work.” These two men got mad and left the meeting and the church. From that day on, the church began to grow.

In addition to ongoing power struggles over who will lead the church, some congregations use their voting bylaws to further control the leadership of the church. A pastor may be elected initially, but it is only to try him out for a year or two. If they don't like his style of ministry, they vote him out even if he is living a godly life. This is shameful. Not only does it show the church's great disrespect and lack of love for the pastor, it shows great disrespect and lack of love for the role of pastor itself.

This destructive practice is further made worse by bylaws that give only 1/3 of the quorum members present at a meeting power over the majority of the congregation. Under this provision, a very small group of power-seeking people can successfully split a church, selfishly pursue their self-interests, and send broken-hearted people away – including the pastor and his family. The extent of damage done to pastors and their families by unsupportive, disrespectful and unloving congregants is shockingly measurable. 80% of pastors believe that “pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families. Many pastor's children do not attend church now because of what the church has done to their parents.” http://pastoralcareinc.com/WhyPastoralCare/Statistics.php

Although I see the wisdom of voting a pastor in for life and strongly believe ongoing retention votes for pastors are unscriptural and destructive in our assemblies, churches who choose to continue this practice should, at the least, require the same high percentage vote of members to send a pastor away as they do to bring him in. For example: If 75% of positive votes are required to elect a pastor, 75% of negative votes should be required to let him go. That way, the decision of who will be pastor is consistently made by the majority of the members and not just a small powerful group wanting to take control.

The Lord calls, equips, and strategically places pastors where he wants them for purpose. If the church will fervently pray and seek the Lord's provision of pastor for them and then continue to daily pray for and uphold his hands as he pastors the church, without thought of voting on him again, the Lord will bless the church and they will move forward together. How can the church grow if it keeps finding fault with everything the pastor does?

No wonder we see so many pastors leave the ministry. One study showed that an average of 1700 pastors, from varied denominations, each month left pastoring in the prior year. Additionally, that same study showed that of those still pastoring, 80% of pastors and 84% of their spouses feel discouraged in their role as pastors. http://pastoralcareinc.com/WhyPastoralCare/Statistics.php

Friends, these numbers are staggering and should alarm us. We are the body of Christ. The pastor, his wife, and family are an integral part and we need to love, accept, respect, and support them in a way that honors the Lord. We need to support the vision that God has given him and move forward with his God-given dream. The pastor is God's ordained leader. That is why we have a pastor and not others to lead the church.

I believe we are the greatest fellowship in the world. Together, we get the privilege of partnering to fulfill the great commission, and, together, we can stand against the enemy’s efforts to deceive, divide, and destroy Christ's church. Under the leadership of the pastor, we must move forward together. Each of us must resist the temptation to pursue our own preferences and thwart the leadership of the pastor. Let us be careful to scripturally support the pastor and regularly lift him and his family up in prayer. For heaven's sake – and the church's – let the pastor pastor!

Rev. William Ashpole is an alumni of North Central University and has pastored in Arkansas, Minnesota and, most recently, in Hawaii, the latter for 44 years. In Hawaii, he served as the District Christian Education Director for eight years, followed by Assistant Superintendent and General Presbyter for 24 years. Currently, he is an Honorary Hawaii District Presbyter and Honorary General Presbyter. He is married to Bonnie Lou.

Mahalo (Thank you) for being our Ohana (family). May you have a beautiful Easter.

Jesus is coming soon!

Billy

International Missionary Evangelist

Bill Ashpole Ministries

57 Ilima St.

Wahiawa, HI. 96786

ashpolebam@gmail.com

www.ashpolebam.org

1-808-228-1357-C

A/G

Billy