Matt Chandler on Pastoring

I first crossed paths with Matt Chandler, Pastor of the Village Church in northern Dallas, when he was regularly preaching at Prestonwood Baptist Church’s weekly Metro service for young adults.  I don’t believe we ever officially met, even though I was on staff at Prestonwood and my department supported each service of his.  But each week he spoke I was impressed by his ability to speak honestly and openly in a way that drew people to listen and reflect, doing so in a way that was both conflicting but not demeaning.  This is not an easy thing to accomplish and I venture to say that only a couple of pastors out of every 100 have the gift.  It was immediately apparent that Matt had a gift in understanding and communicating that few have.

This segment from a recent sermon of Matt’s was especially poignant to me….

[As a Pastor] Here’s what you need me to be:

• You need me to submit to the Elder body. Nothing is more horrible than a Pastor who’s king.  Absolute power always goes bad.  It doesn’t matter what the domain of society, whether it’s religion or business.  As a Pastor, you need me to lose votes from time to time.  And I do, even though I’m always right.  [crowd laughs]  I’m willing to give it a couple years and say, ‘See, I told you so.’  But, for now, ‘OK.’
• You need me to love this staff, push them to holiness, and hold them accountable to not waste your money. They’ll work long.  They’ll work hard.  They’ll love their families.  And they’ll live holy lives.  Where they fail in those they’ll need to be engaged by us, encouraged, and handled biblically.
• You need me to love my wife very well. Encourage her, romance her, wash her in the water of the Word, let her grow into her giftings.
• You need me to love my children well and impart to them the glory of God, because Timothy and Titus clearly say that if I fail at that I am unfit for this.
• You need me to love, preach, and proclaim the word of God even when you don’t want to hear it.
• You need me to not care about numerical growth but care about spiritual growth, and let God take care of the numerics.
• You need me to guard our lives and doctrine closely. I know some of you are like, ‘We’re already too doctrinal.’ [pause]  Well, you’re at church!  [crowd laughs]  That’s what we do.  It’s not like we’re at tennis and I’m trying to bring doctrine into tennis.  (Which I think I could do.)  [crowd laughs]  We’re at church.  Trying to say that someone is too doctrinal at church might be one of the goofiest things I’ve ever heard in my life.  Of course we’re guarding doctrine!  We’re a church.  It’s what we do.  Where churches don’t guard doctrine they’re actually not churches.  They’re just a gathering of humanity that might mention Jesus’ name every once in awhile.
• You need me to understand that I am your servant, not your king.

This is what you need from me:  You need me to preach fearlessly, and you need me to do it in a way that you can understand and apply.

excerpted from “The Authoritative Word“, sermon 9.13.09
excerpted from “A Little Housekeeping“, sermon 9.06.09