{"id":849,"date":"2013-01-14T07:00:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomrainer.wpengine.com?p=849"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:33:23","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:33:23","slug":"ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of my articles come from the perspective of pastors. That will not change in the future. I am an advocate of pastors and I desire God\u2019s best for them. I have no plans to change my advocacy role.<\/p>\n

As a change of pace, however, I recently asked a few hundred laypersons to write down what they desired of a pastor. Their responses were open-ended, and there was no limitation on the number of items they could list. Though my approach was not scientific, these laypersons did represent over sixty churches.<\/p>\n

Here are their top ten responses in order of frequency. Since many of them gave one or more sentences as a response, I can provide a representative comment by each of the responses.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Love of congregation. <\/b>\u201cIf we know that our pastor loves us, everything else falls in place. If he doesn\u2019t, nothing else matters.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Effective preaching. <\/b>\u201cI don\u2019t have any expectation that my preacher be one of the best in the world, I just want to know that he has spent time in the Word each week to teach us effectively and consistently.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Strong character.<\/b> \u201cNo pastor is perfect, but I do want a pastor whose character is above reproach on moral, family, and financial issues.\u201d<\/li>\n
  4. Good work ethic.<\/b> \u201cI don\u2019t want either a workaholic pastor or a lazy pastor.\u00a0 Unfortunately, our last two pastors have been obviously lazy.\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. Casts a vision.<\/b> \u201cOur church has so much possibility; I want to hear what we will do to make a difference in our community and the world.\u201d<\/li>\n
  6. Demonstrates healthy leadership.<\/b> \u201cMost of the pastors in my church have demonstrated a good balance; they have been strong leaders but not dictators.\u201d<\/li>\n
  7. Joyous.<\/b> \u201cOur current pastor is a man of joy. His joy and enthusiasm are contagious. I love him for that!”<\/li>\n
  8. Does not yield to critics.<\/b> \u201cI know that every pastor serving today has his critics. And I know it\u2019s tough to deal with them. I just want these pastors to know that we supporters are in the majority. Please don\u2019t let the minority critics dictate how you lead and serve.\u201d<\/li>\n
  9. Transparent.<\/b> \u201cEvery pastor that I have had has been open and transparent about the church and the direction we are headed. It sure has made our church healthier.\u201d<\/li>\n
  10. Models evangelism.<\/b> \u201cOur pastor is passionate about sharing the gospel. His heart and attitude are contagious.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What do you think about this list? What would you add from the perspective of either a pastor or a layperson?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many of my articles come from the perspective of pastors. That will not change in the future. I am an advocate of pastors and I desire God\u2019s best for them. I have no plans to change my advocacy role. As a change of pace, however, I recently asked a few hundred laypersons to write down…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,186,177,194,176],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-health-and-metrics","category-lead","category-preaching","category-revitalize"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTen Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many of my articles come from the perspective of pastors. That will not change in the future. I am an advocate of pastors and I desire God\u2019s best for them. I have no plans to change my advocacy role. As a change of pace, however, I recently asked a few hundred laypersons to write down...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-14T13:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-07T21:33:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thom S. Rainer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thom S. Rainer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Thom S. Rainer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90\"},\"headline\":\"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-14T13:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-07T21:33:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/\"},\"wordCount\":430,\"commentCount\":181,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Church Answers\",\"Health & Metrics\",\"Lead\",\"Preaching\",\"Revitalize\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/\",\"name\":\"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor | Church Answers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-14T13:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-07T21:33:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg\",\"width\":628,\"height\":250},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\",\"name\":\"Church Answers\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90\",\"name\":\"Thom S. Rainer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8c3ff1affa60c1a7bb88c4be178b40a86d32ab697f24a7e5802cc5875ab6eae?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8c3ff1affa60c1a7bb88c4be178b40a86d32ab697f24a7e5802cc5875ab6eae?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Thom S. Rainer\"},\"description\":\"With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/thomrainer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor | Church Answers","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor | Church Answers","og_description":"Many of my articles come from the perspective of pastors. That will not change in the future. I am an advocate of pastors and I desire God\u2019s best for them. I have no plans to change my advocacy role. As a change of pace, however, I recently asked a few hundred laypersons to write down...","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2013-01-14T13:00:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-07T21:33:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":628,"height":250,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Thom S. Rainer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Thom S. Rainer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/"},"author":{"name":"Thom S. Rainer","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90"},"headline":"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor","datePublished":"2013-01-14T13:00:18+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-07T21:33:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/"},"wordCount":430,"commentCount":181,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg","articleSection":["Church Answers","Health & Metrics","Lead","Preaching","Revitalize"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/","name":"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor | Church Answers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg","datePublished":"2013-01-14T13:00:18+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-07T21:33:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/members-desire-in-pastor.jpg","width":628,"height":250},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/ten-things-church-members-desire-in-a-pastor\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90","name":"Thom S. Rainer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8c3ff1affa60c1a7bb88c4be178b40a86d32ab697f24a7e5802cc5875ab6eae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8c3ff1affa60c1a7bb88c4be178b40a86d32ab697f24a7e5802cc5875ab6eae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Thom S. Rainer"},"description":"With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/thomrainer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":696371,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/696371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}