Excerpts from an address at the Louisville Seminary Luncheon, 216th General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Richmond, Va, June 30, 2004 and published in the fall 2004 issue of The Mosaic of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
For more than 150 years, this precious schoolhouse of the church has specialized in training good pastors for the church — good pastors who have been called to live and hope as expectant servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. … Reverently and expectantly, I want our first conversation as family to focus on a vision about the good pastors we hope to continue to train in our community of the Word at Louisville Seminary.
First, I believe the good pastor is a passionate/compassionate believer of the Christian gospel. Our people in the pews long for pastors who passionately/ compassionately believe what they preach and teach. Indeed, from a parishioner’s viewpoint, one of the most priceless affirmations a preacher can receive is: “I can tell you really believe what you preach.” That is, our congregations deeply yearn to call good pastors who will articulate with passion the belief that Jesus Christ is incomparably the most significant event in the history of the human race; that Jesus is God’s own heart of flesh who crawled into the cradle of Bethlehem and who climbed onto the cross of Golgotha; that Jesus, in the words of Joseph Sittler, “comes to us in the world where we are, where we have been, and where we are going….”; that Jesus is the risen Lord and Savior of all times and all places; that to know God now in Jesus Christ is to know God forever.
Second, I believe the good pastor is a lover of persons, one who prays with, grieves with, and ministers to the beloved flock, especially in times of crisis and trouble, especially through life’s major passages. One who sits beside you compassionately on your mourning bench. One who listens as Christ would listen. One who longs to get inside your frame of reference, inside the other person’s skin. Charlie Shedd, the founding pastor of the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, speaks for many a good pastor. Listen to the loving interpersonal wisdom of Charlie Shedd.
“A long time ago I learned a secret. I learned that everybody is hurting a little bit somewhere. I have to keep telling myself to remember this. No matter what they ask, most folks don’t really want to know about me. They want me to know about them.”
Yes, listening is a “Christ thing” when it comes to the good pastor.
Third, I believe the good pastor is a person with a good sense of humor, who possesses good leadership skills, who is comfortable in dealing with the reality of ambiguity, who can step outside of herself and poke fun at herself. Armed with a good sense of humor, the good pastor is equipped to deal with complexity and tension within the body of believers. As Samuel Calian and Henlee Barnette have taught us, our churches need leaders who have “the creative ability to see several solutions to a problem, the ability to work in more than one direction.” Many complex situations have “more than one angle of vision toward a solution.”
Fourth, I believe the good pastor is a biblical/theological sensemaker. The good pastor is a life-long learner who assumes personal responsibility for integrating classical theological knowledge and disciplines with the skills and practices of congregational ministry. The good pastor intricately loves and reveres the art of reading, studying, and passing on the stories of Israel and the teachings of Jesus. With heart, mind, and soul, he believes that the Bible is God’s own self-authenticating word that finds us and reads us with enormous power. She believes that the Bible is a divine/human window, which reveals God’s search for us and our search for God. He believes that the Bible is that larger story to which our own story is connected. Enter into the Bible’s words, make them your own, and you will strangely enter a door which is the Word of God. This is the cherished calling of the good pastor: biblical/theological sensemaker; expectant steward of God’s mysteries.
Fifth, I believe the good pastor is called to be a spiritual person, a person of character and integrity, one who is strong enough to merit our confidence, one who is good enough to merit our loyalty, one who is a moral mentor, one who is a person of his/her word, one who does not aspire to be a “super Christian,” but one who does aspire to live a kind of life that is congruent with the gospel.
Sixth, I believe the good pastor is one who possesses a burning regard for justice and mercy, a prophetic imagination which reaches out beyond her own faith community and into the hurting and tearing fabric of the social order. The good pastor longs to relate Sunday to Monday. The good pastor believes that Jesus identifies mercifully with every victim of injustice and that we are called to despise injustice as Jesus despises injustice. With Lord Alfred Tennyson the good pastor prophetically insists
“That nothing walks with aimless
feet;
That not one life should be
destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish in the void…”
Seventh, I believe the good pastor is a servant leader who is willing and adept in sharing the lead. I love the following metaphors as presented by my mentor Browne Barr in his wonderful little book, High Flying Geese. Just as high flying geese arrange themselves in Vee formation, flying 70% faster together than alone, just as high flying geese share the lead, honk from behind, and cheer one another on, and just as high flying geese keep company with their fallen, so shall the good pastor lead, love and serve the body of Christ. Let her be a mentor/enabler of the priesthood of all believers. In the words of Randy Taylor, let him embrace this profound doctrine of the priesthood never as a “declaration of independence” but always as a “declaration of interdependence.” In the words of Ed White, let the good pastor know that leadership is a “catalytic function” and not “a command and control” function.
In the months and years ahead, we will surely come up with many priorities as we ponder and pray for the health and vision of our beloved seminary. But please God, please let no priority stand in front of our sacred vocation of lifting up, recruiting, nurturing, training and calling good pastors — good pastors who will dedicate their hearts, minds and souls to live, love and prophesy as servants of the Word for the community of the Word, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.
Dean K. Thompson is President and Professor of Ministry at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
