I’ve outgrown my pastor

While in the Dominican Republic to give training for Young Life, I sat across the wooden picnic table from a young student leader from a poor barrio of the city.  We shared a meal together and I listened to his story.

Learning in English

He was eager to practice his English with me.  His accent was weak (not too noticeable), and his grammar was excellent.  He had a job in a call center for English speaking customers of an American telephone company.   In this part of the world, bi-lingual people are in demand.

Given his roots in a poor neighborhood, he proudly told me how he studied English on his own, and with God’s help and his own determination, he “got it” in a few years.  This young man is smart and has a will to succeed and improve his lot in life.

Mastering English was part of his ticket out.

Learning Theology

He had been hungry to learn English.  He was also hungry to learn more about God.  He told me about his studies in theology – picking up what books were accessible in either language.  He had read theology articles on the Internet and read his Bible.

His insatiable thirst led to a deep conversation over dinner in with me about God’s calling on his life.  He wants to grow spiritually, he wants to live out his purpose for God.

The Conflict

The conversation took a deeply personal turn.  With some felt conflict in his heart, he shared with me how he feels like he’s outgrown his pastor.

His pastor labors in that poor community, without the resources to study or improve professionally.  His pastor never completed high school, and this young man thinks most of his pastor’s professional training was acquired mostly from Christian cable television exported from the United States.

Being an independent church, there is no access to supervisors who can help a pastor grow, nor access to ongoing regular training.  There is little access to denominational conferences for personal growth.

As such, the pastor gives a steady diet of motivational sermons along the same general theme:  God is bigger than your problems and He will see you through.

This young man is loyal to his pastor.  He realizes the limitations of his pastor’s education and training and scope of preaching.

These two ingredients  — loyalty and desire to grow — create a conflict in his heart about wanting to leave his pastor and church to continue his own personal growth.

Something has to be done.

Much of the conferences that I’ve seen promoted by churches in the years I have been in Panama, plus the years of mission work in 10 different Latin American countries, show a steady diet of motivational preaching.

We attended a church for 1 year that preached some variant of the same theme week after week: God is powerful and he will bring you through your problems.

The sermons “pump you up” to face the challenges of the week, and give you the strength to survive another day.  In a poor barrio, where life is survival, this is a powerful message.  It is a true message.

But to a growing middle class – where survival is no longer an issue – this message gets stale.  It becomes a lopsided diet of the same basic ingredient.

Self-determined people who improve their lot in life, like the young man sitting at dinner with me, can quickly outgrow their pastor.

What can I do?

Lack of pastoral training and development is a problem that propels me to the mission field.  I saw it when I was in Costa Rica in 1997.

I have met many Latin American pastors that

• May not have finished high school
• May never have completed university.
• Lack the financial resources to grow their skills.
• Are tent makers trying to survive week to week.
• Have little to spare on their professional development.

There are exceptions of course.  Stellar pastors with education and access to resources to make their professional development happen.

While my main teaching focus on evangelism training, part of what propels me to Latin America is to give ourselves away in training pastors.

I want to be part of the solution to this problem.

As I sat across the table from a teary-eyed Young Life leader as he poured out his internal conflict with me, I saw the impact this problem creates.

This young wants to be more effective in reaching lost kids.  He wants to grow his skills and theological understanding.  His feels his pastor can’t lead him anymore.

This shouldn’t be.