Speaking about calling a new pastor from outside the congregation is very difficult to do in an expository way. “Outside hire” is a foreign concept to the New Testament and early church. The typical procedure was to appoint people from within a congregation who aspire to be pastors (cf. 1 Timothy 3:1). While it is a church’s responsibility to support those who serve in the preaching and teaching ministries of the church (cf. 1 Timothy 5:17-8), I think something like what we now have as employment and salary packages were also foreign to the early church. The economies of other nations so long ago were different from our economy in our context. These facts do not, however, mean hiring pastors from beyond a local church’s congregation as employees of the church is contrary to Scripture. It simply means that the Bible doesn’t address the topic specifically. When we think about such a topic, we have to think about it in terms of biblical principles because we want to honor God, and we want the transition to go well. We want to, on one hand, protect the local church because we can’t really know someone until we have had a significant amount of time with him. We also want to protect the potential incoming pastor and his family. People get very excited about future possibilities and forget that an incoming pastor needs to be grafted well into the current paradigm before any future can be realized. Without a successful grafting in, an incoming pastor’s ministry will be wrought with turmoil, which will negatively affect his family and the local church, even if he is a good pastor and even when the congregants and influential members of the congregation have good intentions and love Jesus.
Grafting in is a delicate business. I am writing this primarily for my church family because we are in a season of transition. Our pastor search team is searching for the next pastor. When a pastor is eventually brought to the congregation and the congregational vote affirms his position, the local church needs to be ready for a healthy graft. I say this from my own experience. Most local churches I have pastored did not think about the grafting process. Everyone was excited. They got a hot, young pastor with zeal who wanted to bring young people into the church! Because a grafting process was far from my naïve mind and the minds of the congregation, I went in with a vision of the future and couldn’t connect with the people where they were at. Every person got so fixated on future possibilities and dreams of ecclesiastical success at the outset that no one, including me, thought about whether it would work if the church didn’t move in the direction that each person envisioned. Looking back now, I can see the turmoil it caused. Though I would have, I became unable to spend very long as the local church’s pastor because I wasn’t successfully grafted into where the congregation was at that time. I wasn’t excited about what the congregation was. The congregation wasn’t excited about who I was. We were all excited about uncertain possibilities, and everyone got hurt. Too often, we hear about new pastors coming into a church and clashing with the deacon body or committees. Even if everyone loves Jesus, people have different ways of doing things. We expect different outcomes when we throw burning coals into puddles, but it always produces smoke. Grafting well, taking on a new team-member who will stand the test of time takes a little more intentionality. If statistics ring true, I think a successful pastoral graft requires 3-5 years. With a successful graft, a local church can enter into a golden age of ministry. Everyone needs to understand, patience and humility are key. No graft will be successful if people are in the habit of taking a hard-line on their own methods and philosophies. There has to be some give and take. Even someone starting a new position as a pastor where he hasn’t been and who plans on making no major changes starting out will inadvertently do things differently. It would be Hell for him and the congregation for anyone to embrace a critical spirit and think that his way is the only way. I think God is the only one with the authority to take a hard-line on anything anyway.
All this being said, there will come a time when the pastor search team introduces the church to its prospective pastoral candidate. The church will ask questions. People will be excited. The church body will vote to affirm the new pastor! Yay!!! I have the firm conviction that God always knows what He is doing. He works all things together for our good, not necessarily our pleasure. Our excitement is conditional. It will not last. Newness of things wears off. Sensationalism can’t carry an individual or group for any meaningful period of time. If we are to experience successful transitions, we have to be ready to compromise—not on the things of God but on the methods of men. We have to think about things in terms of adding people to our family rather than employees to our corporation. Excitement wanes. Our faithfulness to one another in Christ does not. There are quite a few people who want the pastor to be a certain person or envision that the pastor should be a certain way. Though I think God cares about our thoughts and always considers our desires because He cares about us, His plan is ultimately for the church’s best. If things don’t go the way you envision, or they do, trust God with the details. Worry less. We must decrease, and Christ must increase.
I offer these sentiments simply as thoughts. This is not an exposition of Scripture because Scripture does not explicitly address the topic. If you are reading this, you likely have more thoughts or other thoughts. I want to encourage you to think on Christ. Explore the Bible. Spend time in prayer. Ask God to work on your heart and prepare it for His plan. He is good and knows precisely what He is doing. We can trust Him with our lives, souls, and churches.
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