If the pastor was the major factor in the formerly unchurched deciding to join a church we wanted to know why. In the last several articles we have discussed the first six of the eight characteristics relating to the effective pastor: preaching, authenticity, conviction, communication, personal contact and good communication skills. Now let's look at the pastor's class  the one that is taught  and leadership.
Issue #7: The pastor is a good leader
Church leadership resources are plentiful, and you don't need to look far to discover that leadership is critical in growing churches. Our study does nothing to contradict this central thesis. What is somewhat surprising, however, is how quickly the unchurched recognize leadership skills in a pastor.
Meg P., for example, is an Indiana native who joined a Nazarene church 70 miles from Chicago. "I don't know if many lost people are like I was, but I knew I needed God," Meg told us. "I didn't know how to find God, so I started attending churches all over the place. I'm not exaggerating to say I probably went to 30 churches in one year. I probably attended church more regularly than a lot of church members. The only difference is that I went to a different church each time," she said.
The reason for Meg's extensive church search was her sense that most churches "didn't know what they were doing." When we probed to get her to explain, she said: "I'm a corporate vice president in a company that's almost large enough to be in the Fortune 500. I can tell when an organization knows what it's all about versus one that's just going through the motions. I'm sorry to say that most churches are just going through the motions."
When Meg visited First Nazarene, she found a church that knew its purpose, that it understood where it was going. "Pastor Ricky is a leader," Meg said. "He understands that a church needs a leader to give it direction. Why is it that most churches have poor leaders?"
When Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, wrote "The Purpose-Driven Church" several years ago, it quickly became a Christian nonfiction best-seller. The genius behind the book is not its "baseball diamond" plan to bring people into greater obedience to Christ, or to adopt a particular style of worship. And it is not necessarily Warren's understanding of the community context of the church. The true genius behind the book, and Saddleback Church, is the clear articulation that a church must have a purpose; it cannot wander aimlessly and hope to make a difference in the kingdom.
Not all Saddleback-type churches have succeeded. One of the main reasons for their lack of success is a failure to fully emulate Saddleback's purpose-driven model. Saddleback's tremendous success story includes Warren's leadership in articulating with passion the vision that the church must be purpose driven.
One Saddleback-model church that has succeeded is Hunter Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Hunter Street is a church that has grown in attendance from 200 to about 4,000 in a decade. Pastor Buddy Gray readily admits the influence of Warren and Saddleback in his own ministry. Yet Hunter Street has retained "Baptist" in its name. Its worship style is more blended than contemporary. And it is one of the strongest Sunday school churches I know. What Buddy Gray gleaned from Saddleback is that a church must understand its purpose, and the pastor must lead the church to carry out that purpose.
Eighty-eight of the respondents in our interviews specifically stated that the pastor's leadership skills were a factor that influenced them to join a particular church. One issue that arose frequently was the interpersonal relationship skills of the pastor. I mention it here because it was often cited in the same context as leadership skills. For example, Randy D. of St. Paul, Minnesota, noted, "I knew the pastor was a strong leader the first time I attended church. He was clear in providing direction for the church, and he was very good in the way he related to everyone."
Issue #8: The pastor's class
Phillip R. began attending New Life Community Church near Kansas City, Kan., after hearing the service on a radio broadcast. He and his family had just moved to the area, and Phillip was "ready for a new start, including finding God and a church."
Phillip and his wife, Sharon, had a 9-year-old daughter who was immediately drawn to the church. Phillip noted: "New Life has a very good children's program. When we enrolled Denise in AWANA, she was hooked on the church. What attracted Sharon and me to the church was the pastor's Bible study. His teaching made the Bible clear. It was perfect timing. A month later we accepted Christ and joined the church," Phillip reflected.
Despite the negative publicity surrounding many well-known pastors the last several years, many unchurched still seem to have a high level of respect for pastors. By adding the factor of the pastor's class to the factor of personal contact by the pastor, we find that the formerly unchurched told us 192 times that they desire some type of personal interaction with the pastor.
Pastors tend to be intensely involved in a new members class. The formerly unchurched indicated that they prefer a pastor's class, like a Sunday school class, as their introduction to the pastor. They strongly desire to see or hear the pastor in a setting where they can interact with him.
More to come
Although this is the last article dealing specifically with the eight characteristics of pastors and church health, it is not the last article in the series. There will be one more article  perhaps the most important  about the importance of the pastoral role.
