Not a Pastor

Written Tuesday, March 27 

Tonight in a small village in Buriram, about 6 hours northeast of Bangkok, I showed Prang the set of Train and Multiply materials I brought for her.  Train and Multiply is a curriculum for equipping average believers, even new ones, to start and lead small churches.  Prang has been actively talking about Jesus with her neighbors, and doesn't know what to do with them all.  It's too difficult to get everyone to the nearest church.  So I told her she needs to start one right here.

Train and Multiply is basically a set of 63 booklets, each on a different subject.  The idea is that a coach would normally cover about a lesson a week, depending on the topic that needed to be covered.  For instance, if a question came up about the nature of God, perhaps the lesson explaining the Trinity would be covered that week, and taught by the church leader/trainee at the following meeting.  Since they are simple booklets that can be photocopied, the idea is that very soon that young church leader will soon be training another one.

In Thailand we are partners with the Southern Baptist Bangkok Metro Team.  Southern Baptists aren't too keen on women in ministry leadership, so I hope I don't get in trouble here.  But as the strongest Christian in her village by far, and as someone with a burden for reaching others young and old, Prang is a ministry leader.  I figure that right now, Christians are less than 1% in Thailand.  After we have a few percentage points we can argue about the meaning of I Corinthians 14 and I Timothy 2.   For now, I'm happy for any worker, whatever color or shape.  So I told her, "Learn all this material and you'll be a real pastor."

"I don't want to be a pastor," Prang laughed.  That didn't surprise me.  Prang is not an up-front kind of person.  "That's ok," I told her.  "This isn't about standing in front of a big group and preaching.  It's about reading the Bible together and talking about it.  Why don't you want to be a pastor?"

"Because a pastor doesn't reach many people."

I wasn't sure I heard her right.  

"Because a pastor doesn't reach many people.  He has to stay inside his building and take care of people in the church." 

Hmmm . . . . 

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Anonymous
Posts: 4
Comment
not far off the mark
Reply #4 on : Tue September 15, 2009, 12:29:45
This young lady is, in one sense, not wrong about the duty of a pastor. "God gave some to be...pastors...." to equip the so called lay person for the work of ministry. An important reason for the slow progress of the Gospel is that the pastors spend far to little time equipping (inside) their members and far too much time running around doing the ministry (outside). So, instead of a church having 25 or 50 ministers, it has 1, the pastor and the rest of the people have very little to do with the spread of the church among the lost. Encourage this lady to be a church planter and encourage her to raise up pastors of the churches she starts that will equip their members to be real ministers among the lost. This not only helps you avoid the women pastor question, it will also result in the multiplication of churches!
Greg Gay
Posts: 4
Comment
Women in the pastorate
Reply #3 on : Sun April 29, 2007, 21:26:29
Jim,
Sorry to make things difficult. As I've gotten older and had to think these issues through myself, it's interesting to hear from people that I've been influenced by early on in my walk tell me their positions on difficult subjects. I appreciate your candor. Besides, it's one of the only ways that I can talk with you and sense some closeness with you and the family :) Miss you guys.
Jim Larson
Posts: 4
Comment
To Greg
Reply #2 on : Sat April 21, 2007, 02:38:02
Hey Greg, you would have to ask! I don't think I'm going to tackle that at the moment. Maybe at a later date I'll post on it and get myself in trouble. ;-)
Gregory Gay
Posts: 4
Comment
Women in the pastorate
Reply #1 on : Wed April 18, 2007, 12:48:25
Jim, What is your position on women in the pastorate? This is a tough issue. I'd like to hear you comments.

Greg