clarity
In my time away from paid ministry (Is it better to say "pastoral ministry with financial compensation"?), I've come to see why it remains necessary for the church to pay salaries to certain people among them. It is because the people who are working do not have the time and space in their lives to think deeply and find clarity about life. That is a gift and a big part of what I think is needed from 'pastors'—to help people see clearly what is going on around them and to help them learn how to think as students of Jesus.
This, sadly, is not the thing many churches expect most from 'pastors'. When this gift is not permitted (and most often it is not permitted because it is suffocated by many other demands placed on 'pastors'), it is the church that suffers. The church is in great need of wisdom—not people who know all the answers, but people who have clarity and wholeness or purity of thought. The fact is that our culture assaults people with astounding amounts of information, appeals, announcements, assertions, and calls to action. The church needs people who will step out of the stream (raging whitewater?) and be still and listen, to reflect on what is happening, and to understand what the Spirit is calling the church to be, do and say in the world. And while this is something every member of the church ought to be engaged in, there remains a need for a few who devote more time and attention. This gift is not to function as dictates and obligations placed on others, but as a servant-guide, or docent.
The church needs 'pastors' to understand the pace of life at which many of their people find themselves going. I realize that I never really understood what unfair expectations I made on people (when I was in "pastoral ministry with financial compensation"). I was reading Darrel Guder's "Continuing Conversion of the Church" again recently, and he suggests that we should expect to see more mature members of our churches less and less as they engage in ministry (in the world, not in the church building), and more time ought to be spent preparing less mature members for their ministry. He wrote that our churches need to develop structures of sending.
This seems to me to be a very different job description for pastors than what most churches that I know expect to see. I hope to see the day when the work of a 'pastor' is determined by the gifting and call of that woman or man, rather than some all-encompasing organizational director, C.E.O. + Bible Answer MAN, do everything job description. I hope to see the day when the church honors the giftings and callings of everyone, rather than a select few.
We do need 'pastors'. We do need people who can take the time to reflect on what is happening and what it means and what is needed. We do need people to help bring clarity (even if it includes complexity). We do need people who have the time to teach people how to think and live a students of Jesus. We do need people who are free from prepackaged, preconceived notions of "what a pastor is supposed to do," and who are allowed, and even encouraged, to function according to their giftings and callings because they themselves trust and encourage the function of other people's giftings and callings to make up the difference.
This, sadly, is not the thing many churches expect most from 'pastors'. When this gift is not permitted (and most often it is not permitted because it is suffocated by many other demands placed on 'pastors'), it is the church that suffers. The church is in great need of wisdom—not people who know all the answers, but people who have clarity and wholeness or purity of thought. The fact is that our culture assaults people with astounding amounts of information, appeals, announcements, assertions, and calls to action. The church needs people who will step out of the stream (raging whitewater?) and be still and listen, to reflect on what is happening, and to understand what the Spirit is calling the church to be, do and say in the world. And while this is something every member of the church ought to be engaged in, there remains a need for a few who devote more time and attention. This gift is not to function as dictates and obligations placed on others, but as a servant-guide, or docent.
The church needs 'pastors' to understand the pace of life at which many of their people find themselves going. I realize that I never really understood what unfair expectations I made on people (when I was in "pastoral ministry with financial compensation"). I was reading Darrel Guder's "Continuing Conversion of the Church" again recently, and he suggests that we should expect to see more mature members of our churches less and less as they engage in ministry (in the world, not in the church building), and more time ought to be spent preparing less mature members for their ministry. He wrote that our churches need to develop structures of sending.
This seems to me to be a very different job description for pastors than what most churches that I know expect to see. I hope to see the day when the work of a 'pastor' is determined by the gifting and call of that woman or man, rather than some all-encompasing organizational director, C.E.O. + Bible Answer MAN, do everything job description. I hope to see the day when the church honors the giftings and callings of everyone, rather than a select few.
We do need 'pastors'. We do need people who can take the time to reflect on what is happening and what it means and what is needed. We do need people to help bring clarity (even if it includes complexity). We do need people who have the time to teach people how to think and live a students of Jesus. We do need people who are free from prepackaged, preconceived notions of "what a pastor is supposed to do," and who are allowed, and even encouraged, to function according to their giftings and callings because they themselves trust and encourage the function of other people's giftings and callings to make up the difference.
posted by joel at 3:16 AM
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