I Did Not Sign-Up for This: The Fourth P of Pastoral Ministry - YING YEE

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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This is an astoundingly bad teaching. There's no other way to put it. We're sorry to say so, since the author has all of the appearance of being a good-hearted, well meaning pastor. 

First problem: The author neither quotes nor references any Scripture, scriptural principle, or even something that would be edifying or instructive. Nothing. How can one teach about pastoral ministry or any Bible topic without mentioning the Bible?

Second, the author writes enviously of his friend's ministry activities: What a dream job! This is why we went into ministry. If this is indeed his calling, then why is he not being obedient? Why envy someone who is doing what you're supposed to be doing? If the author didn't sign up for what he is doing now, the obvious solution is to do something else.  

Third, it appears the author must be some sort of super-apostle, because he compares his pastoral role to the NT apostles while not seeming to do anything related to pastoring:

Like the apostles, we signed up to give ourselves fully to the ministry of the word and prayer and not to be bogged down with endless administrative matters...

Though it is certainly good for a pastor to pray, there's nothing in the Bible that indicates a pastor has a ministry in the Word, let alone any endless administrative matters. He claims that these administrative matters duties are an unavoidable part of gospel ministry. 

Apparently he doesn't understand what a gospel ministry is, what biblical pastor does, or what the Bible says about who leads the local church.

Fourth, he does concede that a pastor should delegate, but then claims that you may not have the luxury of delegation. What??? If this man is presiding over a local church body, right there in front of him every single Sunday are his delegees. If a church is in such a state that there is no one to delegate to, then the pastor is failing to train up the flock to maturity. 

Further, if there is no one to delegate to, then there can't be very much TO delegate.

Fifth, a church is not led by a pastor. There is but a single mention of the English word "pastor:" 

Ep. 4:11-12 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service...

The Greek word is poimén, a shepherd, a word that appears 18 times in the NT. A shepherd is a lowly person who tends flocks. Shepherds were among the lower strata of society. They certainly weren't standing before adoring crowds pontificating about their great insights into Scripture.

So in the local church a pastor/shepherd is down amongst the sheep. He cares for the flock. He's kind and compassionate. He's good with people and building relationships. He's protective. He's a father:

Jn. 10:13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

1Co. 4:15 Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

Biblically, he is not a teacher, apostle, evangelist, or prophet, although it is possible for a him to be gifted one or more of these and/or other areas. He's not a top-of-the pyramid leader. He's not even a delegator, since a biblical pastor/shepherd has nothing to delegate. 

A pastor/shepherd is not the singular CEO leader of a church. Biblically, the leadership is a plurality of elders:

1Pe. 5:1-3 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow-elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

It's certainly possible a pastor could be a part of the elder/leadership team, but it's not required. It would be based on the man's gifting and calling, not on titles, position, or expectation.

We are convinced that the reason so many pastors fail, stray, or burn out is because they are not embracing the biblical model. As such, they, like the author, get bogged down in things with which they should not be concerned. It's no wonder the church is in such a dysfunctional state, because the leadership is dysfunctional.

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I was speaking to a friend the other day. He is not a pastor; he is an itinerant preacher and teacher. All his time is simply taken up with teaching the word of God. When I asked him about how his organisation works—its strategic plans for the future, its governance structures and so on—he did not have any clue. He said he doesn’t have to think about any of these things. All he has to do is what he is told to do, which is to preach, teach, train and disciple people.

What a dream job! This is why we went into ministry. Like the apostles, we signed up to give ourselves fully to the ministry of the word and prayer and not to be bogged down with endless administrative matters and long boring committee meetings that seem to go around in circles like the people of Israel wandering in the desert.

In the last few months, in addition to my preaching, teaching, evangelism and discipling of others, I’ve also had to think about issues like …

Building;

Logistics;

Budget;

Communication styles;

Property searches;

Audio Visual set up;

Manpower planning;

Marketing;

Constitutional matters;

Cleaning up rosters;

Working out job roles and responsibilities;

Compliance issues.

Some of these issues only need a glance over, but others require a lot more attention. But they all float around in my brain and clog up my neural pathways.

Needless to say, this is NOT what I signed up for, but it is also an unavoidable part of gospel ministry. I can complain as much as I want, but it won’t change that. Ministry, like every job, has unavoidable aspects that we need to do.

(...)

I’m not saying that pastors should be consumed by all these things. Like the apostles, we need to give ourselves to the ministry of word and prayer. When the apostles were presented with a big pastoral issue, they wisely delegated administrative tasks to other gifted lay leaders.

But none of this will completely remove your platform responsibilities. And if you’re a solo pastor in a small struggling church in a rural area, you may not have the luxury of delegation. You might be the only one able to deal with the admin stuff.

And even if you’re part of a bigger and more established church, you’ll have other things to look after. You may not have to deal with day-to-day operational matters. But there’ll be bigger administrative issues that will need your oversight. Much of your ministry will be simply about running the church.

We need more and more people going into gospel ministry, but unlike my friend, who has the very, very rare luxury of simply focusing on preaching and teaching and nothing else, most of us will need to manage that fourth P: platform.

We need to raise up leaders who are not simply good in the first three P’s— people, prayer and proclamation. We also need leaders who are painfully aware and appropriately equipped to do the fourth P.

Come to think of it; maybe there is a 5th P—what a PAIN!