Salvation by pastor alone

by Tom Steagald

Most Christian congregations confess that the faithful—and, we should hope, even the unfaithful—are saved by “grace alone.” In fact, like the foolish Galatians, we have turned to a different gospel. What we really believe—individually and corporately, spiritually and pastorally, vocationally and ecclesiologically—is that salvation (read “success”) is the result of “work alone.” Or if not work alone, then work mostly, which, unlike grace and faith, produces measurable results and therefore testifies one way or the other to a minister’s effectiveness or a congregation’s vitality.

One practical consequence of this theological eclipse is easy to observe: how many of the mailings filling pastors’ inboxes are selling techniques? The latest products for programming? Some new skill set that will increase attendance, engender enthusiasm, generate giving?

Eugene Peterson laments our temptation and tendency to substitute technique for spirituality. One result is impatience: we have to get busy! Another is fear: if we don’t do this now, the church down the road will do it, and we'll be left behind. Yet a third result is the kind of frustrated and often quixotic jumps pastors make from church to church when a new building, staff, program or pulpit/platform seems more amenable to their goals. These idolatries and self-deceptions prompt Peterson to encourage pastors to cultivate a spirituality of both place and incarnational patience.

I should disclose that I recently received a nice "promotion." In my new pastorate—where I'm thankful to be and thrilled to pitch my tent—I've been trying to locate and avoid the traps set for all ministers. Here’s one: even well-meaning congregations often believe they will be saved not just by work, but by the work of the pastor: her preaching and personality, his pastoral care and visitation, the winsomeness and marketing and programming that will change the old First Church from “inglory” into glory.

We in the trade are prone to lament our congregations’ unrealistic, unyielding and even idolatrous expectations. But I suspect that secretly we are flattered by it all. For all our protestations, the most dangerous trap is one we set for ourselves: many of us desperately want our people to be dependent on us, want the flock to turn to us in every little crisis to solve every problem and sign off on every decision. Their high regard can assuage our insecurities. It can seem to validate the call and reward the sacrifice. John Baillie identified this pastoral neurosis for what it was when he confessed that his "care of others" was often simply a "refined" form of self-care.

As I start work in a new place I think of the Baptizer’s benediction: “I must decrease and He must increase.” What does salvation by grace alone look like in the local church?

Tom Steagald is a United Methodist pastor in Shelby, North Carolina. He's a contributor to Feasting on the Word (Westminster John Knox), and blogs at Prayer Pilgrimage.