Pastors or Police?

All church leadership must place in the context of relationship. If it does not, quite quickly it becomes more like police work than pastoral work. Those in this line of work love to sniff around for clues; who is committing the crimes? When was the last time they did so? With whom? Have we got enough evidence? What sentence can we set to really teach them a lesson?

The problem with this approach of course is that it is completely and utterly ineffective. Police work does not often deal with crime as it focuses on symptoms rather than causes. Moreover, it can only punish those who are caught. Thus crime often ends up going underground and in a far more virulent form. Quite apart from this is the fact that people are as likely to rebel against such authoritarianism as they are to toe the line. Even those who fall in line won't necessarily know why they are doing so and soon they will be disillusioned, or far worse, they may join the force themselves.

Instead, those who want to take seriously the call to leading the church of Jesus should aim for nothing less than transformation of hearts and minds. Peoples actions will always fall in line with what they believe to be true about the world. So aim for the heart! If you can convince someone of the need to change at that level then real and lasting transformation will occur, which will likewise spread like a wild fire.