The Pastor's Study

Historically, a pastor did not have an office. Offices were places of great activity.  People moving from place to place to make things happen.  Offices were for businesses. Time is money after all.  In the past half-century, this “office” mentality bled over into many churches. The historic church however, recognized that to hear a Word from the Lord, the pastor did not need an office.  Too loud.  Too noisy.  Too many people. Too much activity. 

“Consistently managing personnel, facilities, schedules and finances are time-suckers. They will eat your day to the extent that God only gets your crumbs. ”

In the church or in the parsonage, there was often a room set aside for the pastor to use.  It was referred to as "The Pastor's Study." It was so named because the church saw the task of the pastor as someone who was invested in the Scriptures and prayer and not one who was a CEO of an organization. There are many good things that churches can learn from organizational leaders, but pastoring as a CEO will ALWAYS lead to disaster for those who are truly called to lead God's people. The reason is because pastors are not called to be CEO's...they are called to be men of the Scriptures, men of the Spirit, men of prayer. Consistently managing personnel, facilities, schedules and finances are time-suckers. They will eat your day to the extent that God only gets your crumbs. 

A great need in the contemporary culture of the church is for men who forsake the CEO role and mentality and spend large amounts of time throughout the week pursuing the presence of God through the spiritual disciplines. Churches have to be trained to accept that this is biblical and needed. Good marketing skills, savvy leadership and telegenic personalities are rarely the marks of Gospel callings. It doesn’t mean that these things do not have their place, but they are never priorities over the hunger and thirst for the presence of God among His people and in this, the pastor must lead.

I do not have an office at the church and am very thankful for that. I have a study in my home. I am in the church building a minimal number of hours per week. The church sees the blessing of compensating a pastor to be in study and prayer.  

In the Scriptures, the basis for the calling of the 12 disciples was that the Lord chose those whom He wanted to be with Him (Mark 3:13 emphasis mine).  As ministers of the Gospel, that clear calling to be with the Lord has not changed. Dear pastor, consider these things as you lead God’s people.  I am certain that the greatest spiritual growth that happens in the local church is when the pastor has personally experienced the glory of Jesus in his private study and heralds that glory with an unveiled face from week to week.