A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

nister to the needs of the congregation and officiate over its rituals of worship and of passage (birth, baptism, mar- riage t death). They are held responsible for the spiritual health of the people while lacking the platform to shape the context that conditions spirituality. The church becomes dependent on what the pastor can give to the congregation in terms of personal qualities and tal- ents. But one person cannot provide all the resources to meet the needs of a laige community. Thus the single-pastor ministry tends to become program-centered. The single pas- tor, no matter how faithful, gifted or sacrifical, cannot hope to achieve what God has not intended to be the assignment of one person. "He gave some (to be) apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teach- ers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the min- istry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph* 4:11-12). The Pastor as Chief Executive Officer The culture of modernity with a focus on individualism, pragmatism and production has given birth to church leader- ship models difficult to reconcile with the Mennonite Brethren understanding of biblical leadership. One such model was advocated by Matt Hannon in a lectureship at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary on "Plateaued Churches and Their Renewal.*14 He recommended Strang central leadership with the pastor serving as the chief executive officer. The major function of this "Chief Executive Officer" (CEO) pastor was to spend time with selected trainable people who can transmit the vision and motive for the pastor's program to the people of the congregation. In this model the primary concern of leadership is management not relationship, "Leaders do not need to be relational, some may be."15 Questions about the single-pastor system have been raised 226 HOW SHALL WE THEN BE LED? elsewhere. A letter to the editor of Christianity Today spoke to this concern: For centuries, mainline Christian groups have perpetuated the unbiblical practice of investing virtually sole spiritual authority in a single individual, to whom the faithful look up. Yet, in the new Testament prescription, the Holy Spir- it appoints Elders in every local assembly-his wisdom is that there is power in the harmony and plurality of the spiritually mature. We witness how often a pastor falls from his pinnacle and how parish tension thrives when parishioners walk more spiritually than does their clerical head who, after all, sets the norm. Set against the Lord's design, such a pastor has been ecclesiastically e