Sola or Plura Pastora 2 (by T)

T posts again on this Multiple or Solo pastor question.

Sola Plura Pastora – 2: Teaching

Today I’d like to single out one pastoral task that almost everyone would put high on their job description for a head pastor, namely, teaching, and talk about the pros and cons of the sola and the plura approaches.

In many churches, in no task is the pastor more alone than in teaching, at least as it pertains to the central gatherings.  In my experience, most pastors choose their topics alone, prepare their messages alone, stand alone to give them, and do all this for 80% of the Sunday services, week after week and year after year, in addition to whatever other teaching they do in other services or classes. (Tip of my hand: all of those can be done in teams!)

So let’s talk about this, starting with reasons to support this practice.  What are the reasons you’ve heard to have one person do the vast bulk of the teaching, week in and week out? Church unity?  Doctrinal consistency? Skill/Education? Church growth?  Tradition/Inertia? Pastoral loyalty for planting pastors?   Let’s hear the best arguments you’ve heard, even if you don’t buy them.

By way of contrast, two of my favorite reasons for pursuing plura pastora are, IMO, (i) that many teachers tend to present a better, richer and more accurate picture of God and (ii) multiplying teachers for this and later generations is a central part of our mission.

Regarding accuracy, many pastors today have a practice of preaching (primarily or exclusively) line by line, verse by verse through whole books of the bible.  The reason for this tactic is to prevent pastors from teaching only on pet doctrines or verses, while avoiding others.  The goal, as I understand it, is to present the most accurate picture of God we can, based on all the scriptures.  I think this is a noble goal and not a bad means to pursue it.

But there is a thought I can’t shake: The tactic adopted by the early church to accomplish that same goal and a few others seems to be (instead), deploying (and multiplying) several different yet unified witnesses/teachers within each community of faith who are accountable and submissive to (and respectful of) each other.    Jerusalem had many teachers (more than 12!).  Antioch had many teachers.  Corinth had enough to argue about favorites.  And I’m thinking of the example of scripture itself.  Paul, in his letters, paints a very accurate picture of Christ.  So does John, though in very different style and terms.  So does James, who is different yet consistent as well.  All the New Testament witnesses and teachers  are accurate and yet very different from each other in style, imagery, even content.  And even today, I think we can acknowledge that the picture of God that is presented by two different, yet orthodox teachers, can be very, very different depending on the personality, theological and experiential lenses, etc.

Rather than deny the reality that different teachers can speak very differently about the same things and still both be highly accurate, the NT seems to embrace it, even ordain it as a way to strengthen the church in its task to be a faithful witness of Christ, via body ministry and mutual submission and love.  What do you think?  Which will produce a more accurate picture of Jesus – sola or plura pastora?

Regarding multiplication and mission, one of the saddest outcomes of the sola pastora approach, IMO, is in (the lack of) multiplication of workers for the sake of the mission that it tends to produce.  Jesus looked out at the masses and was sad for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd—even though he was right there in the flesh!  Even Jesus, as a sola, was insufficient to the sheer scope of the pastoral mission.  We need to meditate on that fact. His response was to pray for more workers for this harvest, and tell the disciples to do the same.  Then he summoned the twelve to be with him, so they could become those working shepherds that were needed.  Multiplication was necessary for mission.

In the same way, Paul’s letter to Timothy contains the command to pass these truths on to capable people who can, in turn, pass them on to others.  Whether we look at Jesus or the pastoral epistles, the mission required teachers to multiply.  I’ve been in many churches who verbally affirmed the desire to train others up for ministry, in the teaching work and everything else.  But very little multiplication that creates peers in the work actually occurs.

Finally, even if we only look at the perspective of training up future generations of pastor-teachers who are young now, multiplication leads to multiplication: a given young congregant who feels some call to teach and/or pastor is less likely to believe that they themselves can actually teach if they primarily see only one person, with one personality and style which may be very different than their own, doing teaching in their church.  However, if that same young person sees multiple people teaching, each with their unique personality and style, I would argue that such a person is more likely to be encouraged in their calling, more likely to believe that they can do that work they’ve seen several others do, and more likely to be themselves as they faithfully pursue the work.

What about you?  How necessary do you see multiplication of pastors and/or teachers to Christian mission? Is multiplication of teachers part of the teaching task itself?  Is multiplying teachers (even those who can teach on Sundays) to be church work?  Should pastors plan and intend on creating peers who are capable of doing everything pastors do?  Should they plan or even intend on sharing the pulpit on Sundays?  Should they plan or even hope to give it away entirely and plant again and/or send new pastor-teachers out to plant new churches?

The last questions we need to ask are practical.  Where are some places you’ve seen plura pastora implemented well in teaching?  How did they do it?  What are mistakes to avoid?  One book I just started reading that is as practical as they come is Developing Leadership Teams in the Bivocational Church.  Despite the title, it would be a useful resource for even full time pastors who want somewhere practical to start.