For a long time, in the American public school system, everyone took roughly the same classes (maybe at higher or lower levels) up until they graduated high school, and then, they could go to a vocational school or an undergraduate institution and select a major. This was the first real time you got to specialize in a subject area. 

This started to change slightly by the time I was a teenager (mid-00’s), with some students skipping homeroom to take extra math, and some taking multiple music classes a day and no science classes by their later high school careers. By the time I was a youth pastor (2010’s), there seemed to be a much higher level of specialization in students than I had ever noticed as a young person. Entire schools were dedicated to specific pathways, and not just occasional fine arts schools, but STEM, vocational training programs, and more. When students were finishing the eighth grade they were being asked to pick not only between schools but between what were functionally majors. This seemed stressful to me, and probably unhelpful in a lot of circumstances. 

Imagine my weird feelings when I realized that the elementary school my two-year-old twins are zoned for is a STEM focus. The elementary school. I will have to enter the lottery for local Pre-K programs in the next 18 months. My daughter’s interests are unicorns, and learning how to put her own pants on, and you want me to decide whether she should go to a school focused on classical education, fine arts or STEM? 

There is of course a value in allowing people to pursue what makes them come alive, particularly if they are the kind of person who has specific and concrete interests and goals from a young age. But not everyone does. Many of us are better described as generalists – people with relative competency in a lot of areas. Being a generalist is good. 

As pastoral leaders, we are both people with a specific interest (theology, God, church life) and people’s whose roles require a jack-of-all-trades skillset. My ministry friends often joke about the “and other responsibilities as required” bullet point on a job description that so often encompasses everything from unclogging toilets, to driving the church van, to graphic design. We all know that we are often called to chaplains, preachers, scholars, and social media managers, all in the same day. Even Jesus modeled this multi-hyphenated leadership, as healer, a preacher, a pastor, a prophet (or in the traditional theological formulation – priest, prophet, and king). 

The example of Jesus suggests that leadership is not about becoming the best preacher, the best teacher, or even the most efficient, effective organizational leader. The example of Jesus suggests that the calling of pastoral leaders includes compassionate care towards the marginalized, deep engagement with prayer, and speaking truth to power – even when your constituents, congregants, and followers don’t get it. Christ-like leadership is leadership that isn’t particularly concerned with itself and its own influence, but is deeply concerned with the work of God in the lives of those around the leader. 

Its good to want to be good at your job, but the vision of excellence that we are often sold is tied up with market-based ideas around optimization, efficiency, and competition that just aren’t reflective of the kind of leadership that Christ calls us to. Ministry is often inefficient, slow, and requires the kind of broad, nuanced, undifferentiated leadership that everything from our elementary schools to our algorithms don’t seem to have a lot of space for. 

A decent preacher, who is reasonably good at conflict management, and is a competent (if not extraordinary) organizational leader who believes what they preach and actually lives in a way that is shaped by their faith? That’s a pastor I would sign up to work for, that’s a church I would go to. Good leaders, made good by their faith, their integrity, and their willingness to fulfill “other responsibilities as required” are a lot more essential to the church today than exceptional preachers or hyper-efficient organizational leaders. 

So this week, embrace the role of the generalist, the jack-of-all-trades, and recognize it as what it is:a tenet of the calling, not a distraction from it. Your community and your soul will be better for it.