ER HUSBAND DIED AT 68 YEARS OF AGE. HE HAD RATED HIGH on the dominance behavior scale, so during their years together he was in charge of everything mechanical or technical that kept their country home functional. He always drove the car, even though in their earlier life together she had done it also. He had always cut the lawn and adjusted the thermostats and gauges. But now she was alone. Grieving. No one to assist her in the difficulties of everyday life.

After the funeral, when the last of the family members had left for many air miles away, it seemed that everything around the acreage that needed attention became an insurmountable challenge. The beautiful garden that she and her husband had planted together was now full of weeds and demanded hoeing. She had tried to start the lawn mower, but it would not work for her like it had for him. Having lost the finer skills of driving, that very day she had backed the car off the edge of the driveway and there it sat, hung-up.

Frustration, tears, and anger overflowing!

Then on the scene arrives her pastor. Unannounced but timely. Compassionately he listens to her tale of woe and gives her the assurance that it is OK to cry and to be angry. He is the one person she knows, along with God, who can listen and feel the hurt. Bereavement, loss, pain, and emotional turmoil are not unknown to this pastor. He knows the sting of death, too. Through her weeping, the words come tumbling out, "It's so hard . . . It's so hard!"

A divine plan is now coming into focus. "I was praying today that someone would come and help me," she confesses.

Together we went to the ditched automobile. With simple ingenuity we were able to extract it from its precarious position. Together we started the lawn mower and restored it to functionality. Together we prayed, thanking God for His providence.

We parted. She with hope again; I with a renewed understanding of how immeasurably important in God's scheme of things is the work of the pastor.

Not Valued-Enough
After 36 years of diverse ministries in the church, it is apparent to me that few of us value and uphold pastoral ministry as we ought. Yet we do know that if the church is to prosper spiritually and numerically, it is the shepherding work of the pastor, teaching and equipping the members, that will give rise to the success we seek. Still, there are some in the church who approach the subject of ministries with the view that pastoral ministry among ministries is merely an option. At times some of us even try to escape it.

It is somewhat comparable to the story in Joseph Heller's book Catch-22 in which a fighter pilot had once asked to be excused from flying on grounds of insanity, only to be told that to refuse to fly showed a strong streak of sanity, and therefore he could not be excused from flying. Thank God for the "strong streak of sanity" that keeps some of us in it while we try to find excuses to be out of it. If anything is of greater importance, it must be administration, we think without saying it out loud.

Although there are many denials of it, much like the corporate world, the church in practice follows a secular view of what is success. It is called upward mobility. It goes like this: When you are young and inexperienced, you begin as a pastor. If you are successful, you will be offered a departmental job. If you really do well at memorizing the "party line," you will become an ad-ministrator-first the conference, next the union, then the division, and finally "up" to the General Confer-ence. With time, the further you get from pastoral ministry, given some basics of public presentation, the better the chance that you will be the one chosen to give talks and seminars-telling pastors what ministry is all about. All the while, you will have forgotten, as I did, that the true ministry of Jesus Christ is more profoundly evident in such things as helping the widows and the orphans. Ministry is only ministry when it touches someone's soul at the place where they are living or, more aptly, struggling.

What We Need
What the church needs today in these difficult and stressful times is to believe again (if it ever did) that pastoral ministry is its main ministry. I am suggesting that as a church we have not done very well in applying the biblical hierarchy of ministries to our common church life. The apostle Paul is the one who gave us the order of priorities in ministry in 1 Corinthians 12:28 when he wrote: "And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues" (NIV). Despite that, we persist in basically inverting the order by directly or indirectly putting the lesser ministries ahead of the greater. If the matter weren't so serious, we could leave the subject there and say, "It's worth thinking about." But to make the point with clarity and to call effectively for change in the church, more must be said.

Let us look at some of the ways in which we classify what is important in the work of the church:

1. In most instances, I believe, the members of the church have the image in mind that when a pastor goes into conference work, he/she has been promoted. If we had properly emphasized the place of pastoral ministry in the church, it could more easily be believed that leaving pastoral ministry is to step down in one's calling. Let us openly admit and express that when pastors get a call to work other than pastoral, they are knowingly and willingly leaving a higher calling.

2. The financial structure of the church makes it economically advantageous for entities of the church to select speakers for seminars and camp meetings from an administrative office in one of the multiple layers of the church. If we had the will to do it, we could restructure the system so that an inviting organization would have the same financial provisions when a pastor is chosen as when an administrator is chosen to make presentations.

Questions for Reflection or Small Group Study 1. What is the definition of pastor? Is it possible to fulfill the calling of pastor outside the local church congregation? Why or why not? 2. Read Ephesians 4:11-13 and 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and 27-31. Compare and contrast the various lists of the gifts of the Spirit. Does Paul list the gifts in an identical manner? What does the apostle say is the purpose of the gifts? What does he affirm as "the most excellent way"? 3. According to our author, "ministry is only ministry when it touches someone's soul at the place where they are living or, more aptly, struggling." How do you respond to this assertion? Can ministry take place outside of the local church setting?

3. The church system often, if not always, makes financial provision for office employees to have the most current technology to do their "important" work. For example, they can carry cellular phones and laptop computers with them for ready accessibility. (I know, because I did it too.) Pastors do not generally have such provisions unless the local church is large and wealthy in resources. Often, small things make big statements. Essentially this issue portrays that administrators do a work that is critically important, while the pastor's work is not so important. Their work can wait awhile, but not that of the administrator.

4. When we have our large gatherings, such as General Conference sessions, we hear speakers at the podium speak somewhat pityingly about those who are not so privileged as to be present to partake of the "greatest" spiritual blessings ever experienced. How would it be if it were conveyed that the greatest of all spiritual blessings is in the local church every Sabbath when well-trained and dedicated pastors give spiritual leadership to their congregations? (Well, maybe not. Most of us Adventists love great convocations, don't we? Cost notwithstanding.)

5. Of curious interest is how the educational institutions of the church often communicate that the graduates who are most valued are not those who have remained pastors. Most often, the alumni who are given highest recognition are those who have taken up other professions or careers, such as managers/administrators. An example is found in the summer 2000 edition of Canadian University College's college relations publication, Real Stuff, which featured 10 world-class graduates of the university college. All 10 were in some form of management/administration. Evidently for the purposes of the article, no graduated pastor has made it to the category of world class.*

Never before have churches been in greater need of dynamic, deeply spiritual pastors. Pastoral vacancies prevail in North America. It is no secret that the brightest and best of our youth today choose science, technology, business, and other kinds of nonpastoral professions for their lifework.

How shall we meet the challenge?

Doubtless there are many things we can do about it, but at least, shall we not as laypersons and ministers alike reconsider our beliefs and values with respect to our precious church life? Let each of us become agents of change and place the greater emphasis and recognition on the ministry most akin to that of our Lord and Master, Jesus. He was among His people as the Good Shepherd-a pastor, teacher, and healer. Possibly then the youth of our church would consider more seriously the opportunities of inestimable value for truly helping others that they may find in pastoral ministry.

*Please understand this is not a criticism. I might have made the same emphasis had I remained an administrator. It is cited here only as a verification of the phenomenon that this article addresses.

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D. Douglas Devnich was the pastor of the Owen Sound and Harriston churches in the Ontario Conference of Seventh-day Adventists when he wrote this article. He now pastors the College Park church in Oshawa, Ontario.

NOTE: This article originally appeared in the June 2001 Canadian Adventist Messenger. We republish it here with only minor changes.