What is being a pastor? Is it more like being a teacher? Is it more like being a statesman? Is it more like being a psychologist? Is it some combination of the above? Or something else entire? The world is full of books about how to preach, and full of books about how to lead, R. Scott Pace and Jim Shaddix have published a little book that attempts to tie these two things together and clearly articulate the function of the pastor in their new book Expositional Leadership.
The reality is, pastors are leaders. But their tools of leadership are not the tools the world uses–their tools do not involve a police force, military, or any form of punishment that other authorities might use to knock people into line. Nor do they have access to the enticements that employers or casino owners can offer. Instead, the tool they have with which to lead their people is the regular exposition of God’s Word. This approach to preaching is one that often gets missed, and helping us to keep that in mind is the point of this short book.
Full disclaimer here: I am not a preacher (and Lord willing, I have no plans to be). But this is still a good book to read as it is helpful both in thinking about what we should be seeing from the pulpit in terms of leadership, but also what being a leadable congregant might look like. Am I the sort of person that is going to make their function as a leader harder or easier? Am I encouraging other sheep to submit to the leadership of the shepherd as he preaches God’s Word? Or am I nudge people away from his guidance?
Again, that’s not the point of the book, but I found it a useful exercise. Overall this book is going to be most useful for pastors, but I do encourage nonpastors to read this as well as a helpful guide for how to think well about the multifaceted voice coming from the pulpit on Sunday mornings.
Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO
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