mgpcpastor's blog

Craig Barnes gets the tensions of pastoral life.
In the introductory chapter of ‘The Pastor As Minor Poet’ (Eerdmans, 2009) he describes the many conflicting expectations which are assigned to the contemporary role of pastor and the tension which is their fruit.

Confronted with all of these competing identities, is it any wonder that the pastor has been reduced to what Stanley Hauerwas calls “a quivering mass of availability”? Clearly this is not what the Holy Spirit had in mind on the day when the pastor was ordained.

Barnes then goes on to sum up the problem.

Few pastors will deny that on Sunday mornings we look across the pulpit into the pews with a sense of envy. Everyone else in the church came because they wanted to be there. They’re all free. they don’t have to praise God even when they feel like cursing today. They could have just spent the morning with The New York Times and a good cup of Starbuck’s without anyone thinking that their call was in jeopardy. Parishioners are freed by a spiritual anonymity pastors will never know. Best of all, they’re free to tell the old ladies with thin lips that they can take a flying leap if they complain one more time. Pastors have none of these freedoms, and they resent that so much of their invididuality was lost on the day of their ordinations. but if you asked most pastors to identify this lost individuality, they would have a hard time finding it, because they’re assimilated too many projected ones. Carrying so great a burden, it’s no wonder they cannot fit through the narrow gate into the Kingdom of God, where all of the freedom of Christ is enjoyed.

More on Barnes’ advice about how to fully experience and minister the freedom of the narrow way later.