I’m back from retreat group. Five other refreshed pastors are still travelling home. (And we’ll all sleep well tonight.)
We talk about ourselves and our experiences of life and ministry.
Done well it’s not an exercise in comparing ourselves and feeling smug or self-conscious about how our strengths and weaknesses rate in relation to others.
Instead we encourage each other with wisdom and friendship to serve as faithfully as we can in our particular contexts.
A lot of leadership models (yes, even church leadership models) seem to be ‘this guy is a success, you need to learn how to become as much like him as you can and you’ll be successful too.’
Well, truth is you don’t need to become him, you need to become a more faithful and Christlike version of you, because ministry is encouraging folk to become more faithful and Christlike versions of themselves.
Tom Cannon writes, with his usual insight and craft, about the danger of pastors and the Christians they serve falling into a trap of importing unrealistic and unhelpfully applied standards on their ministries and lives in a post entitled ‘Pray for me. Listen better. Stay off the Porn.’ (The title probably got your attention, right?)
Here’s an excerpt.
If I didn’t think I had gifts to preach I wouldn’t be doing what I do. When I started I was focused on swinging for the fences every time I stood behind the pulpit. That produced an almost paralyzing self-consciousness in what is supposed to be an act of pastoral care and, dare I say it, dependence on the Holy Spirit. Add to that the inevitable gloom when it was clear that my efforts barely left the infield. I wanted to be A-Rod and the fear of being a utility outfielder was crippling me. Now? I prepare as diligently as I can, pray (way less than I should), tremble appropriately when I dare to speak for God and…generally leave it at that. Don’t mistake that for a casual approach to preaching. Hardly. Word and Sacrament is the height and fullness of what I’m called to do as a pastor and I see it as a matter of life and death. I’m just increasingly, by God’s grace, unconcerned about my place on the roster and I’m reasonably sure that makes me a better preacher.
Read the entire post here.
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