It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

“The prophet/preacher, the administrator, the priest, the teacher, and the counselor… these are the differing roles of ministry one will most likely function in.” says the Professor.

Student: “Are these the differing roles one can be “called” into, or the roles that one person who is “called to ministry” will have to fill?”

Professor: “One person- the pastor of the local church.”

Different student: “It seems like that will force the pastor to step way outside of his giftings… I mean, if he is forced to do the things he isn’t gifted to do, doesn’t that provide a greater risk of burnout?”

Professor: “Yes, it does, and yes, many do have to work outside of their giftings. That is why the call to ministry is something so weighty, you have to be cut out for the job if you expect to make it, cause a lot of times you do have to do things you aren’t gifted to do.”

…

Need I say more? Yes, this actually happened. Yes, I was there. How can we project this as a good thing? Are you as horrified as I am? How can we expect this to keep on working when so many pastors are already leaving their churches presently? In all honesty, more so than any psychology class that I hardly understood and more so than any mathematics class that bored me to tears, that ministry class discouraged me. How can we healthy churches if we do not have healthy theology? The Pastor is not the center of the church- Jesus is. Not only that, but the pastor was never meant to be the answer man to every crisis and situation, he is supposed to provide direction. I am speaking of pastors in the sense of leaders, not in the sense of their giftings, for in that sense, it seems as if the pastoral gift is not even the leader of the church. Aside from semantics, what of the giftings?

4There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. 7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8Therefore it says,

"WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN."

9(Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into (the lower parts of the earth? 10He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:4-15 (NASB)

If we expect one man to continuously pour out of himself to the number of his congregation, many of whom have not even committed loyalty to the vision the pastor is leading towards, we will continue to see a decline in ministry students, and those who do enter it will be either full of themselves as being “cut-out” or ignorant of the demands. The church must begin to realize that mere pew-sitters do not bear fruit, and the responsibility for that is in their own recognition of purpose. Why should they believe they ought to bear fruit when they are constantly reminded that the pastor can take care of things?

I have no doubt that many people sitting in our churches do indeed believe in spiritual gifts… but the question is, are they given opportunity to use them? When the pastor believes it to be his responsibility to fill in the gaps of all areas, how can he disciple those whose giftings more naturally and purposefully fill those gaps? When does he have time to disciple at all? Christ is the giver of all gifts… in order that in all things He is the first and last, the author and perfector. The church is not intended to rest on the strength, charisma, personality, or resolve and determination of one man unless that one man is Jesus Christ- the Prophet, Priest, and King. It is purposed to be filled with the Holy Spirit to be a Christ-centered, Christ-dependent living body that does ache sometimes, but by His incredible grace has been given the gift of healers to comfort, and yes it does run with passion sometimes and has been given the gift of visionaries to see where it should go, and therein it has been given teachers to pass on that vision and prophets to proclaim accountability to that vision- the vision being bearing fruit to the glory of the Son of God.

It seems as if it is time to lift the burden of the pastors and let the other gifts give themselves the way they were intended to, for spiritual gifts are in no way gifts to they that possess them indeed they are gifts to those being served- to the glory of Jesus Christ, the eternal living Savior.