Yesterday morning I was at a rather large church here in Toronto. It was a good service, the preacher there is very good. It was strange though because it was one of their pastors last days. He was changing roles. Instead of replacing him from within the congregation they had flown in a pastor from Australia. The church is a good church, the teaching is good. But it is a church of thousands, I found it hard to believe that they could not find someone from within their own community to step up and take a leadership role.

I hesitate to say at what size a church should be seeking pastors from within the community, because Christian discipleship means any church should be raising up leaders from within its congregation. I guess it just stuns me more when a church that has thousands to draw from goes off continent to find a new pastor. Shouldn’t finding the right person be easier when you have a large church?