A Tale of Two Leaders
By Rev. Tashara S. Void, Contributing Writer
Once upon a time, there was a tale of two leaders. One leader was a man not known to have great riches, but he fared well enough. He received an inquiry from a young man looking for a place to work, as he was hungry and had no way of acquiring food. The man hired the young man and charged him with feeding the pigs. It was not a very classy job, but it provided a little something for him. Unfortunately, his provisions were not enough to actually fill his stomach, and he began to long for the pods of the pigs. Thankfully, he remembered something, rather someone, before he reduced himself to such a humiliating state.
He remembered another leader who was well off. The leader had hired hands as well, but he cared for each well. In fact, they had enough to share with others and still be good. So, he thought to himself that he would go back to this leader and beg for a position among the hired hands since he had already given up the good position he had. But, somewhere along the leader’s journey, he realized that his profits and business would improve if he took care of his people. It was not enough for him to flourish; he made sure his people did too. So, when the young man came to him, he was all too willing to share what he had and do for him what he had done and is doing for others. And this made me think about the itinerant ministry in the church.
There is a notion in the minds of most that when one enters the itinerancy, they enter to start “at the bottom.” There is the idea that “a smaller church is a starter church,” and that is where all who begin the pastoral journey should begin. Very few resources are provided, and very few churches have enough resources to sustain the new pastors and their families, leaving them like the young man, working and hungry. The system is designed to keep those at the bottom always scratching and surviving, hanging in the chow line, because somehow, somewhere, they were taught that was the initiation into pastoral ministry.
But what if the church adopted the model of the second leader in its current itinerancy structure? What if instead of operating out of the theology of scarcity, we operated out of the theology of abundance? What if instead of making those at the bottom fill themselves with pods of the pigs, we compensate pastors in such a way that they not only had enough for themselves but enough to share? What if instead of hoarding resources thinking it will somehow take away from the larger church needs, we give them enough to be satisfied and sustained, so they are not hungry? What if we honor the work they are doing and compensate them so that they have enough to spare? How much happier do we think those at the bottom would feel? How much more satisfied would they be? What greater works and ministry would they do if they did not have to scrape the pod but could eat freely like those they hire themselves out to?
