It may sound a bit off, but several senior pastors and leaders have the reputed designation, but not the authority, to run or lead the church. There are churches run by outstanding pastors, while on the other hand, large numbers of pastors forfeit serving either due to their own will or the board decides to revoke leadership from them.

Preaching for more than 50 years, Dr. E.C Fulcher JR shares his insight on why pastors do not always lead their churches. 

The board runs the show

Generally in smaller churches, the board and its members influence its future. A pastor is just hired to pray, marry, preach, visit the elderly and ill, etc.

In several of these churches, the pastor has to grant permission from members of the board for every of his visions. The condition of conflict arises as a real pastor comes to church and demands to lead the church.

The staff runs the show

Having staff by your side can be relieving and efficient. However, it’s important to have staff in the proper place for pastors to lead in the best way. Though in many cases senior pastors keep making collegial relationships with staff and quit the responsibility to lead.

If the staff was built by a pastor with strong leadership skills, they would step up and demonstrate their leadership skills in absence of the senior pastor.

The congregation wants to vote on everything

The stronger the congregational in a church the harder it gets for the church to grow. The church loses the vision of the pastor and starts taking shape following the vote of the committee. When the members would be eager to vote on everything from the color of the wall to whether to shift praying rooms, the church loses its shape of growth.

Nobody runs the show

This is one of the heartbreaking scenarios. Where nobody leads the church it runs on an autopilot mode where no one steps up and takes decisions. They just work on making sure that no one gets upset and everyone is happy.

The pastor leads by consensus

In this scenario, the senior pastor acts as a consensus builder where he takes the vote of every member related to the church before reaching a final decision.

Instead of buy-in, they keep trying to build consensus with everyone down to the most palatable level.

Dr. E C Fulcher had completed his doctorate from United Christian Bible Institute, Cleveland. He had started preaching at an early age of 17. He was awarded the “Defender of Animal Rights Award” in 2002 & 2005. Writing, restoring old cars, and writing songs are few things he likes to do.