牧养与信任

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牧养与信任

                                                                                               

编者按：

因为罪，人类已经丢失了因着与神连接而有的全然信任，而是处在一个自我保护的状态。在一个彼此信任的环境里，人才会将自己的心打开，内里的东西往外真实流露，并在感受到被接纳后，聆听和接受外来的东西。所以说，没有信任，如何牧养？

现代教会的高需求会把牧师弄得心劳神疲，特别是对一个新手牧师而言。

被呼召去马里兰州伯赛大第四长老会（Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland）的那一年，我31岁，接替理查德·哈佛森博士（Dr. Richard Halverson）的工作。在他22年的服事中，教会从500人增长到2000人，这意味着我面对的是一群庞大而有活力的会众，带着他们庞大而有活力的期望。在努力达到那些期望的过程中，像许多新手牧师一样，我发现了那些被眼前需求掩盖了的东西。

尽管现在已经牧养第四长老会二十多年，我要和新手牧师分享一个建议：最有果效的服事通常需要花时间，因为最有果效的服事往往发生在赢得会众的信任之后。

会众需要知道，他们的牧师是长期委身在他们中间的。如果他们不清楚这一点，就会感到自己不过是提升牧师进程的垫脚石，而非圣约群体中的宝贵成员或是国度的同工。

信任的文化壁垒

具有讽刺性的是，正是许多令美国充满活力的美国文化中独特之处，妨碍了这种会众对牧师的信任。来美国之后，我在许多方面观察到了这一点。

美国基督徒像美国文化一样，充满能量和活力。我记得第一次来美国的时候就注意到这一点。美国基督徒有伟大的梦想，并且相信自己几乎能完成头脑中的任何构想。然而这种被称为“救主式的自信”是有问题的。美国人会用自己冲动的热情代替神的工作。例如，一个牧师可能倾向于更依靠他繁忙的日程表而不是他的祷告；更依靠自己的新想法，而不是和教会老成员进行长时间的交谈。

美国教会就像美国一样，也有非常创新的沟通能力（例如电子邮件等）。这种形式的“传达信息”固然很好也很必要，容易陷入尤金·毕德生（Eugene Peterson）所说的那种“糟糕透顶的八股文”。不是简单的用词不当；而是作为牧师仅仅做这些还不够，还要像毕德生总结的那样，“教我们的人祷告”。钟马田（ D. Martyn Lloyd Jones）则可能会说成 “把男人和女人带到活着的神面前”。

美国基督徒的第三个鲜明标志，也是从美国文化而来，就是异象化的思维能力。一些美国教会已经形成了“异象宣告”。他们想要知道前进的方向，并且给了牧师很大的压力去把他们带到那里。（这是否会像寻求属灵恩赐或教会增长研讨会那样，只是一个潮流？）这同样也存在着问题。这种思维模式会导致“不耐烦躁动的野心”，决定不惜一切代价增长，或不辨目标好坏都要达到，是一种折磨教会的弊病。牧师们被期待成为企业家，从近期出版物中称呼的“牧师企业家（Pastoreneur）”一词中可见一斑。

牧师往往会去追求“高大的尖顶教堂”，我来美之前从未听过这回事儿。但如果我们的异象并非如此，而是牧养神托付给我们的群羊，我们就应当为每日忠信而努力，因为知道这是为将来结果子打好基础。

赢得会众的信任

为了赢得会众的信任，牧师必须牧养他的群羊，这意味着建立关系。这是牧师作为领袖和牧人的不同之处。如果没有和羊群建立关系，牧人就无法牧养。仅仅作领袖则不需要这样要求。如果牧师采用世俗的领导方式，他会将人视为产品，而不是凡事的优先。这样的领袖是工程师而非激励者，是经理人而非传道人。

在我们这个后现代社会，牧养“模式”不是一个战略手段；对漫无目的渐行渐偏的文化寻求来说，它是一种诗意且基于圣经的回应。后现代的人们不需要另一个CEO或更炫酷的装备。他们需要牧人，给群羊提供关心，照顾，勇气和委身。他们需要牧师，通过外在的宣告和“灵里的关怀”以福音来牧养他们。

和会众打成一片

我是第四教会185年历史中的第七任牧师。这个教会对长期事工有着共同的期望，无论过去还是现在，认识到这一点都令人倍感压力。但这是事工的传统方式：作为牧师，你要和会众打成一片，服事他们，爱他们，引导他们在基督里成长。这样的牧养异象——不是单单的企业家精神或巧妙的异象表达——才能带领你的讲道和教导，也带领你的整个生活和使命。

Shepherding and Trust

The demands of modern church life can consume a pastor, especially a young pastor.

I was 31 years old when I was called to Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, to succeed Dr. Richard Halverson. The church had grown from five hundred to two thousand during his twenty two year of ministry there, which meant I encountered a large and active congregation with large and active expectations.  In attempting to meet those expectations, I discovered, like many young pastors, what it is to be buried by the demands of the present.

Yet now that I’ve pastored Fourth Church for over two decades, one piece of advice I would share with the new pastor is that the most effective ministries usually take time, since the most effective ministry usually occurs after earning the congregation’s trust.

Congregations need to know that their pastors are committed to long term involvement with them. If they don’t, they will feel like mere stepping stones for advancing the preacher’s agenda and not like cherished members of the covenant community and co-laborers for the kingdom.

CULTURAL BARRIERS TO TRUST

Ironically, many of the cultural distinctives of American culture, distinctives which make America so dynamic, also work against this kind of congregational trust in its pastor. Since coming to the United States, I’ve observed this in a number of ways.

American Christianity, like American culture generally, is full of energy and activity. I remember observing this when I first came to the United States. American Christians have great dreams and believe they can accomplish almost anything their minds can conceive. Yet there’s a downside to this “messianically pretentious energy,” as it’s been called. Americans can substitute their cyclonic activity for the work of God. A pastor, for instance, might be tempted to rely more on his busy schedule than his prayer; more on his new ideas than on long conversations with old members.

The American church, like America generally, also has a remarkably creative capacity for communication. There is a good and necessary desire to “get the message across.” Yet again there’s a downside, what Eugene Peterson has spoken of as “embarrassingly banal prose.” This is not simply a poor use of language; it is the loss of vision as to what we should be doing as pastors, which Peterson sums up simply as “teaching our people to pray.” D. Martyn Lloyd Jones would have talked about “introducing men and women to the living God.”

A third distinguishing hallmark of American Christianity, which again draws from American culture generally, is its capacity for visionary thinking.Some American churches have taken to “vision statements.” They want to know where they are going, and they place great pressure on the pastor to take them there. (Is this just a fad, like spiritual gift searching and church growth seminars?) Again, there’s a downside. This type of thinking can lead to “impatiently hustling ambition,”a sickness that afflicts churches with the determination to grow at all costs or to achieve their goals whether they are good or bad. Pastors are expected to be entrepreneurs, as evidenced by the recent publication called “Pastoreneur.”

Often pastors have an ambition to obtain the “tall steeple church,” something I had never heard of before coming to America. But if our vision instead is to shepherd the flock to which the Lord has appointed us, we should strive instead for daily faithfulnesses, knowing that this will prepare a foundation that bears fruit in the future.

EARNING A CONGREGATION’S TRUST

In order to earn a congregation’s trust, the pastor must shepherd his flock, which means building relationships. This is the difference between the pastor as leader and the pastor as shepherd. One cannot shepherd without building relationships with the sheep. Mere leaders have no such mandate. If the pastor adopts a secular model of leadership, he will see people as a product, not as a priority. Such leaders are engineers, not encouragers, managers, not ministers.

In our postmodern era, the shepherd “model” is no strategic ploy; it’s a poetic and biblical response to the searching of an aimless, straying culture. Postmodern people don’t need another CEO or more gee-whiz gadgetry. They need shepherds who will provide care, concern, courage, and commitment to the flock. They need pastors who will shepherd them with the gospel, both by proclamation and “the care of souls.”

LIVING AMONG YOUR PEOPLE

I am the seventh pastor to serve Fourth Church in its 185 year history. It was and is daunting to know that the church has a corporate expectation for a lengthy ministry. But that is the traditional pattern of ministry: you, pastor, are to live among your people, serve your people, love your people, and so lead your people to grow in Christ. And it is this vision of shepherding—not mere entrepreneurship or clever vision casting—that should not only shape your preaching and teaching, it should shape your entire life and ministry.

作者：Robert Norris

罗伯特·诺里斯博士来自南威尔士，自1984年以来担任马里兰州伯赛大第四长老会的主任牧师。

来自群组: 金灯台团契分享组