Knowledge, Academics and Leadership

I listened to a man today make the statement that we have plenty of knowledge in the pastorate today, but we have a dearth of leadership. The statement makes some sense when a person realizes where this, now pastor, comes from. The man has no formal Bible training but does have an extensive and successful background in fast food restaurant management. Having managed a large number of McDonalds restaurants as well as Cinnabon stores, both throughout the United States and internationally - he considers himself a successful leader. Having witnessed many years of church planting conferences and hearing the stories of men who more or less thought of themselves as a failure in the ministry, this man, a leader in the corporate world, concluded that their failure was due to a lack of corporate leadership skills. These skills he now believes he can and should pass down to future independent Baptist pastors.

First, I do not fault his passion for both reaching lost people and helping preachers do well. It is heartbreaking at times to hear men express their desperation for the resources to care for themselves and their families as they attempt to serve the Lord. How can we ever give enough money to fully alleviate the needs of so many families do without so much?

Secondly, I recognize that some of my dispute with this manager/pastor could be labelled by some as mere semantics. I certainly do not discount the necessity of leadership in the ministry and I would be the first to decry to idolatry of academia in the pulpit. We are on the same page Brother!

However, I contend that there is more than semantics at work here; there is a rudimentary difference in the philosophy of ministry:

• The one making the ministry a mere product of man.
• The other recognizing that the ministry is about the calling and gifting of God

If all the pastorate needs is to learn how to manage a McDonalds in order to be a successful pastor, is the church a work of God or a mere marketing outlet? What is the difference between the philosophy so criticized in independent Baptist circles, of Bill Hybels' seeker friendly churches and this pastor’s “have it led way” Baptist churches?

I agree; we don’t really need more academics. Whether a preacher can define homiletics and hermeneutics is irrelevant. But knowledge, true wisdom, is an entirely different matter altogether. 2 Peter 3:18 KJV does say,

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
This knowledge is different than academics. This is the intimate knowledge of God. It is developed not through leadership but through true theology, the study of and the getting to know our God. 

We have helped no one if all we have done is assemble a congregation and make them feel well cared for and like they fit in to the community of the church (and I suggest that is a reasonable definition of the function of leadership). No sir! The preacher’s job; the pastor’s duty, is to lead the flock of God to still waters and green pastures where they may be satisfied in Christ. No shepherd can do that unless he knows where those green pastures and pools of fresh water are found and he cannot know that unless he has, himself, been refreshed there.