Ministry Thoughts and What Not

I was just recently thinking a little about ministry and what it looks like to be a team in that ministry. There's been a lot of talk between and friend and I about how we think churches should function and the most effective way to do so. There are two things that came to mind. Both incredibly simple.

The first being a church, and this only my opinion so don't take this as the end all be all of answers, should be staff led. I think that the existence of committees and "red tape" to go through to get anything done hinders the growth and reach of the church in its community. If led by the staff, a church can make decisions faster, and with the overall vision of the church left intact. To have committee after committee, or "team" after "team" that are involved in all the major decisions of the church is like playing telephone. By the time the decision has to be made, the vision is often lost, and the message becomes more of who's opinion reigns supreme and who gets lost in the dust of the argument.

I recently visited a church in South Carolina that is set up in a "top down" format. Basically the head pastor and the ten staff heads are the decision makers of the church. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever to have someone making large decisions about the church, that do not work for the church and, God forbid, haven't grasped a hold of the vision. Now, taking small plant churches into consideration, this doesn't stand true because the church can't afford to pay that many staff members. This simply applies to developed churches.

The second idea I was thinking of was that a pastor and his spouse should be thought of as a team. I reading a blog from another church half way across the globe and every main pastor is pictured with his/her spouse and all the entries, unless personalized individually, are signed with both names. The pastor and pastor's wife ARE A TEAM!!! They should be thought of that way! A pastor's wife should be the second half of the pastor's ministry. They should be one team.

I desire for a wife someone who can stand by me in ministry. I don't want to be known as just myself, but myself and my wife.

Anyway. That's a book for today and like always, these are just spewings of the mind, so don't kill me over anything!