Most pastors of most churches have to be all-round generalists. Of course, preaching is a significant part of the job. But so are all manner of other things.

^{[Editor’s Note: “football” in this article refers to soccer.]}

I came across the following insightful, typically Keane-esque quote yesterday that I think has a lot to it. I think that is an absolutely fantastic football quote, particularly the last line:

If football was only about ability, we’d have more than one ball on the pitch. When one player has the ball, for the other 21 the game’s about positioning, running, desire, communication, organisation. It’s about a lot more than just the ball. The ball tricks people into believing some of these lads are top players.
Roy Keane

That last line has quite a lot of application outside of football. You could replace the word ‘ball’ with all manner of things and make the same point about quite a lot of jobs. Rare is the job that is solely about just one basic thing.

I was particularly set to thinking about that last line when it comes to the pastorate. I think Keane’s observation would hold for pastors if we reword it this way:

It’s about a lot more than just the sermon. The sermon tricks people into believing some of these lads are top pastors.

Of course, pastoral ministry necessitates decent preaching ability just as football requires some ability to control the ball. But just as you can have Premier League ball control and yet be a fourth-tier player, you can be a fantastic communicator and yet a sub-par preacher. You could even be a fantastic preacher – great bible handling, brilliant exegesis, fantastic application, amazing communication – and yet still be a terrible pastor. Being a pastor is about more than just preaching.

This is why, in the list of qualifications Paul gives us for eldership, ‘able to teach’ is just one of them. It is why ‘able to teach’ is pretty much the only ability in the entire list. It’s not that Paul thinks teaching and preaching is unimportant; just that it isn’t the only thing. There is much more to being a pastor than how good you are in the pulpit.

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