This is the answer to the question, "What do you mean by a tall-steeple pastor?" from the Facebook group, "Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment"
The "senior pastor of a multi-pastor church" is a good rule of thumb definition. Lots of them will be at the Old First Presbyterian of a medium to large city, or a successful First (and possibly only) Presbyterian of a county seat town. They normally are not first-call positions, but one that a pastor works up to. In a well-functioning presbytery they are respected leaders, called to yeoman service on the major committees.
Sociologically they are the successful executives of congregations, and therefore are the natural reservoir of leadership for the higher bodies. In the denomination as a whole, the small group of pastors of very large congregations should provide a good reservoir of leadership for the national church.
Naturally, not every individual in a tall-steeple church will be good leadership material for the larger church. And one consequence of pushing them out of denominational leadership for nearly two generations is that the group of people who end up as a large church pastors may not be good team players anymore -- precisely because they have had to remake the whole presbytery, or even the whole denomination, within their congregation.
If the church routinely honored its tall-steeple pastors, the career path in the whole denomination would gradually fill most of these largest slots with the best denominational leaders, since that would be the normal path to denominational, as well as congregational, service and success.
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2 comments:
You write "the career path in the whole denomination would gradually fill most of these largest slots with the best denominational leaders"
Perhaps that statement would be true in some denominations, but not in a denomination as deeply divided as the PCUSA. I attend a tall-steeple conservative Presbyterian church in a very liberal presbytery. Therefore, our pastors either avoid the presbytery or are deeply at odds with it. Usually we just try to ignore the presbytery and live in our own little world.
That is precisely the division and mutual suspicion that I am trying to overcome.
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