Dwell in the Study

Lord, don't let me become a manager or entertainer...

Estimated Read Time: 6 Minutes

Photo by Iñaki del Olmo

A while back, a pastor friend of mine posted on Facebook about his “study.” Ps. John pastors in Canada and worked with my dad at Sheffield Family Life Center under Dr. George Westlake in the 90s. Like my dad, Ps. John is more traditional than the young contemporary pastor. He still wears a suit on Sunday Morning to preach. He also has a large library.

The idea of a pastor’s study is becoming all the more foreign.

I have yet to hear a pastor my age or in my neighboring millennial generation utilize the term personally. They often will refer to their place of work as their office.

They have offices.

They do administrative work. They have meetings. They lead teams. They do sermon prep. They speak. They lead ministries. They go into the office.

Office hours…

Pastors like Pastor John are getting older and us—their replacements and successors—do not have studies.

I speak in generalities, but the condition warrants the conversation.

I am rapidly approaching three years of pastoral ministry. I am daily tempted by the societal and trending pull to become an entertainer and manager. These are not bad things. To be clear, I seek to utilize these mechanisms as any pastor will in some capacity. Yet, I—as many pastors would probably confess—have been tempted to focus on developing speaking and communication skills, team and volunteer management, visitor retention, engagement tactics, and other leadership skills in much greater proportion to my pastoral study.

Here lies the deadly allure.

In seeking to grow as leaders and speakers, pastors are rapidly becoming more practical and less deeply rooted in the rich biblical and theological art of living revelation.