The (Dangerous) Myth of Certainty
There's a version of pastoral leadership that runs on certainty...
And I bought into it for a long time: you hold the vision, you communicate the vision, people fall in line, and the church moves. (And sure, we might occasionally struggle with doubt behind closed doors, but out there in front of our people? Certainty.)
Cause that's how it's supposed to be, right? After all, there's an entire industry of church consultants and pastoral leadership influencers selling certainty. You can BUY confidence now, based on data, based on software, based on AI (Psalm 20:7, anyone?).
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But then, inevitably, things spiral beyond your ability to control outcomes, and you run into the end of yourself. For me, that looked like an onset of severe anxiety attacks that put me in the hospital. Since then, I've been forced to adopt a more open, trusting posture.
Sats Solanki, pastor of Reflect Church in London, has lived through that same pressure.
Sats says, "The pressure that we experience really changes when we admit we don't have to have all the answers, and step off our pedestal. And leading that way is just so much more fun, man."
The pastoral weight was never ours to begin with.
Psalm 127:1 says unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Which means I'm not the architect. Neither are you. We're participants in something Jesus is doing.
A Better Way: Open-Handed Leadership
What I'm learning to do, slowly, is trust the outcomes to Jesus. To share the weight with the people around me instead of hoarding it. To stay faithful, shepherd the flock, and trust that He will build His Church.
The growth, the finances, the measurables? Those are His.
I don't always get to see how He's using me, or whether what I'm doing is working. And I'm learning to be okay with that. Because even the gates of Hell have no chance against Him.
Aaaand, on an unrelated (but totally worth it note)...
I came across these things on the interwebs this past week, and I think they're pretty dang rad. If you dig these, you're my people.
- The Mockingcast Podcast - one of my fave podcasts, by three excellent co-hosts.
- The Password Game - If you want to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that yes, you are a human... this is where you do it.
- A funny Instagram joke - Yeah, you got me, Sats Solanki. You got me good.
In Christ, Who Is Our Life,
Josh Gordon
Senior Editor at The Lead Pastor
Pastor at New Life Fellowship (Ontario, Canada)
You Don’t Have to Pastor Alone
If you’re ready to step off the pedestal of forced certainty and lead with open hands, you don’t have to do it in isolation. We are building a community of leaders who are learning to share the weight, swap honest stories, and trust Jesus with the outcomes.
Join The Lead Pastor Membership today. It is completely free, and it’s a space designed to help you breathe, connect, and lead healthily. Let’s figure this out together.