Pastors Who Lack Interest

Sam Rainer

I’m not too big on cooking. I worked as the grill guru-master at a local wings joint for three years while in college, so I know my way around fast food. But I am certainly not a skilled chef. It is just something for which I have no passion.

Being recently married, my wife and I have discovered that we must cook something in order to eat. It was a bit of a shock that first week of marriage. Neither of us is all that passionate about cooking. And this lack of interest recently showed when we tried to host a dinner party a couple of weeks ago.

We saw this recipe in a cookbook that sounded quite tasty. But cookbooks are only good in theory – you have to follow the directions in order to produce something edible. What we concocted for this dinner party was certainly not edible. We were attempting to make something called soufflé. What we got was ‘soup-ple.’ Luckily, we had enough chips and dip to squelch any hunger pains.

For a couple of weeks we laughed about how pitiful our attempt was, but we didn’t figure out our mistake until we were making another dish. For all you single persons and young married couples out there who are learning to cook, here’s a grand tip: when the stick of butter says ‘1 tbsp’ on the side, it doesn’t mean that the entire stick of butter equals one tablespoon It means just that one section is a tablespoon. I know, I know, I’m a flippin’ genius. You can thank me later.

The bottom line: to be a good chef you need to be passionate and knowledgeable about the kitchen. The same passion applies to any job that you undertake. It also applies to ministry. And why people go into the ministry without passion for what they are doing baffles me. In a recent study by Ellison Research, it was uncovered that four out of ten pastors state that they are not interested in reaching out further to their communities. Such is the case with all major denominations, and it holds true with both evangelical and mainline churches. So how can a pastor not want to do the ministry required of the position?

The excuses abound – from lack of funds or facilities to not enough time to outright apathy about the community. It’s time for pastors and churches to drop the excuses. Many will say, “Once we grow some more, then we can…” But growth of a church just cannot occur nor be sustained unless that church is reaching out to the community in some fashion.

It’s so easy to get into the internal mindset, falling into the trap of focusing solely on the members of the church. While this ministry is crucially important, Christ also calls Christians to an entire world of ministry beyond the church walls.

And there are many easy ways to reach out to people who may have never stepped foot into any church. One idea that I saw work at my first church was serving a free community breakfast before Sunday morning service, advertising it to the surrounding neighbors. But the point is not the actual program. The point is getting people excited about an outward focus in the church. Once this fire catches, it is contagious. And it must start at the top. If you are one of the four out of ten pastors wallowing in apathy, then more than likely your church will not see an outward focus come to fruition. Those who are lay leaders, one way to spark a fire is to demonstrate to the pastor your passion of seeing people come to know Christ. We must all be leaders in the area of evangelism and outreach. The bright side is that 6 out of 10 pastors truly want to reach out further to their communities. But the imperative of Acts 1:8 is simply not optional. This imperative also calls us beyond just our immediate communities. And nothing would be more exciting than seeing whole segments of a people come to Christ, sparking a global revival.