Tentmaking 7 (Jeff Cook)

The Tension between Leading and Teaching: Tentmaking 7 (the Final Post)

I know of a few pastors who have solid, large churches who have stepped out of the “executive pastor” role, and have exclusively assumed a “teaching pastor role,” allowing someone else to do the fulltime work of leading their church community. This seems quite healthy, especially since teaching and leading are too very different gifts—and very few have both in abundance.

Unfortunately, most tentmakers (and many pastors generally) are both the primary leaders and teachers in their community. These roles both require time and energy, study and development, and each role vies for our best energy and focus. Given limited time, the primary difficulty I have experienced as a tentmaker has been my inability to both lead and teach at a high level. Of course this isn’t just a problem for tentmakers, but given their second job the time and energy are simply that much less.

For both those who are and are not tentmakers, how do you wrestle with the tension between leading and teaching effectively? Which one should go first? Is turning over teaching responsibilities a difficulty for you, or is getting other people teaching—often—actually healthy for a community? On the flipside, is surrendering leadership hard for you, and how do you decide which places to give others authority?