The Pressure is Off – A Pastoral Paradigm Shift
Youth ministry was not the career path I desired. Though pastoring has been the dream since I was 18 years old, I rarely saw myself as a youth pastor. A senior pastor? Absolutely. Youth pastor? In the words of Moses, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
To my surprise, I have served in youth ministry in various roles from 2013 to the present. Though my current role is less involved in youth ministry and more involved with leading staff and pastoring young adults, I still get to jump into youth ministry every week.
Though this has been a surprise direction for my work life, I am forever indebted to the lessons I have learned in youth ministry. One of them is the importance of listening.
Now, as someone who is pragmatically focused and time-conscious, simply sitting with a student and listening to him or her talk about things I don’t care about is a stretch. But the Holy Spirit has used all of these moments to shape me as a leader and, I sincerely hope, help each student feel seen and loved. Listening is a core element in pastoral work.
This truth was reinforced in reading Tom Camacho’s Mining for Gold.[1] In fact, through reading Camacho’s book, an excitement for pastoral appointments welled up in me. In utilizing Camacho’s framework for Spirit-directed coaching, I could help people find their next step in engagement with God’s mission here on earth. Mining for Gold is all about noticing the value within everyone (like mining for gold), and, in partnership with God’s spirit, drawing out people’s passions, giftings, and encouraging them toward their next step. In doing so, we will have more people engaged in ministry and less dependency on church leaders as the sole effector of God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Camacho writes,
Instead of building ministries by trying to fill positions, a coaching form of leadership would free people to become all God had created them to be. Leaders would begin to discover who they were and how God had wired them. Then they could step into the roles and positions that made the most sense for their development and where they could bear the most fruit. By drawing out the gifts, callings, and passions inside Christian leaders, those leaders could be deployed in the right roles where they could grow and flourish.[2]
A key element to this is a reliance on the Holy Spirit in the refining of the individual. In reading this, I felt a sense of freedom like a weighted vest being removed as I run the long race of pastoral ministry.
In all honesty, I have been angry lately. It is, admittedly, a self-righteous anger. But this self-righteous anger has masked itself as my desire to put on the “Coach David” hat and, in my frustration, yell at people “Get it together!” as their spiritual formation coach. The image of an officer at SEAL training, barking at the trainees preparing them for war, is how I unconsciously envisioned my next season of pastoral leadership. I mean, discipleship means training people for the war that we fight, but not with flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12), right?
By God’s grace and the kindness of His Spirit to reveal this misplaced desire in me, I realized the anger, intensity, and dependence on myself is not a recipe for effective pastoral ministry, but bitterness and burnout.
I want to close this blog with how Camacho’s coaching model is effective in mitigating burnout. The first way Camacho’s invitation to mine for gold in those around us is, in the words of the Vineyard movement, “In the kingdom, everyone gets to play.”[3] In an interview for my project last semester, the interviewee provided a line that has stuck with me. She said, “Our culture demands too much of pastors! In my tradition, we don’t have pastors because we believe in the priesthood of all believers. Are there downsides to this? Yes. But pastoral burnout is not one of them.” If we truly believed in the priesthood of all believers, that everyone has a role to play, we would rely less on pastors for being the jack of all trades and perfect executor of them all.
Second, as I shared earlier, there is a reliance on the Holy Spirit as the “primary refiner” of peoples’ growth into Christ-likeness.[4] This takes the pressure off of me as a pastor. This does not eliminate my concern for people becoming like Jesus, but I do not have to be “Coach David” and yell at people in an attempt to get them to be more Christ-like. Rather, I can, in my conversations with people, be attentive to the Holy Spirit and ask “Lord, what do you want me to ask this individual? What are you already up to in this person’s life that I can partner with you in?”
A week ago I had lunch with a young adult from our congregation who wanted to meet up. With Camacho’s content in my mind, I prayed as I drove to our lunch spot. As we ate our pizza, multiple times I brought my mind to the Holy Spirit and requested guidance in our conversation. After we went our separate ways, I spent time in prayer as I was driving. In doing this, I thought “I can never go back to pastoral ministry without being attentive to the Spirit.”
The pressure is off.
[1] Tom Camacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching, First published (Nottingham: IVP, 2019).
[2] Ibid. 24-25.
[3] Ibid. 51.
[4] Ibid. 60-67.
About the Author
David Beavis
David is Australian by birth, was raised in Southern California, and is the Youth and Young Adults Pastor at B4 Church in Beaverton, Oregon. David and his wife, Laura, live in Hillsboro with their dog, Coava (named after their favorite coffee shop). M.A. Theology - Talbot School of Theology B.A. Psychology - Vanguard University of Southern California7 responses to “The Pressure is Off – A Pastoral Paradigm Shift”
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The reminder that the Holy Spirit is the primary refiner is a process of invitation. I resonate with your words and those expressed in Tom Camacho’s book about the process of coaching. As Camacho stated on page 61, “when we invite the Holy Spirit into the coaching process, everything goes to a higher level.” He later goes on to share how deep listening is the first step. Relying on the Primary Refiner, through first and invitation started by listening is key as we coach and disciple others as they grow as image bearers.
Yes, yes and amen! Thank you for reading!
David,
What you say right here is golden:
Rather, I can, in my conversations with people, be attentive to the Holy Spirit and ask “Lord, what do you want me to ask this individual? What are you already up to in this person’s life that I can partner with you in?”
God is up to stuff…doing stuff…in powerful ways that we are not aware of! It is a blast to partner with Jesus to meet people where they are at!
I pray that the Lord will continue to lead you and all your pizza lunch opportunities!
David, Thank you so much for this blog! I love how you brought together your personal experience with the message of Camacho’s book. Also, it seems like you were able to work with a strong theme of the book, without being overly tied to the book. You took your blog in a direction that was relevant and transformative for you. And, at the same time, challenged your reader to consider these truths in their own life.
What a powerful insight you shared at the end, regarding always wanting to partner with the Holy Spirit in your pastoral conversations. It makes me think that we could also pray as we write our comments for each other in our DLGP01 cohort. That could be powerful if we were all doing that for each other.
Thanks for your insights, David!
David,
Well done, well said. I am thankful Jesus Christ laid down His life so we can play too. Much love!
David,
Your post is well done and heartfelt! Thank you for sharing deeply. Listening to the Spirit is the best take away I think. Praying for you in your ministry!
“Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” How many times have we all said this?!
The fun part is that God has placed you right where he needs you to grow and appreciate your next step. You are using all of these experiences to not just jump to the next spot and stay stagnant… but to LEAP AND THRIVE.
The transparency of your blog was amazing and I loved getting to see this side of you.
Im late to the party… but if you have time can you recap how living with this new school of thought has impacted you, your leadership, and decision making several weeks later?
Write the book friend….