This month we asked our bloggers about how they view the role of pastor, how they understand their pastoral identity, or to share what a pastor really does all week. Here’s how they responded.
When asked, “What do you do during the week?” I am tempted to quip, “I do not do much of anything, perhaps go shopping or binge a Netflix series.”
On occasion, I visit a friend in the hospital. I attend a committee meeting when the opportunity arises. I sit in on Bible studies periodically. I share breakfast with other bewildered pastors when the venue is right. I listen to heroes and heroines describe their adventures (and misadventures!). I sing softly with the tenors in the choir. I utter the words of resurrection at the graveside.
I tuck my knees in tight to do cannonballs into the lake near enough to church members to create the proper effect – this makes for good sermon material when the need arises, which tends to be rather frequently. I laugh with children when they see through adult shenanigans and speak the prophetic word for the day.
When I am off the clock, I run into church friends at the gym. I contemplate the proper amount of BBQ sauce for the church stewardship lunch as I jog the Tar River Trail. Between chasing my 3-year-old son in his Ironman mask and finding Waldo, I read my favorite preachers, Mary Oliver and Flannery O’Connor. I plagiarize the best parts. I rehearse aloud to my wife what I have patched together for Sunday morning.
Admittedly, I do not know exactly what other pastors do between Monday and Saturday.
In his book, “The Pastor,” Eugene Peterson, recalls every Sunday morning walking a quarter of a mile home after leading worship. For 30 years, his next-door neighbor would say to him: “Well that’s done, pastor. A one-day workweek. Must be nice.”
Peterson observes that pastors are invisible six days a week. “When we visit the sick,” Peterson explains, “only the sick person and his or her family knows of it. When we write a letter, only the person who gets it knows. When we pray, only God knows.”
For most of the week, there are no stages or pulpits or spotlights. There are only seemingly ordinary moments between seemingly ordinary people searching for love, to love and to be loved.
I have heard that a pastor can be like the innkeeper in the parable of the Good Samaritan: a person who is ready to receive the wounded when they come. I think this may be right, and in the parable, the innkeeper remains nameless and in the background.
So, we ask the question, “What does a pastor really do all week?” I think it is a fair question, and as a solo parish pastor, my response is simple: “A little bit of everything. Pastors are peculiar people, who believe that maybe the gospel is true.”
SAM CODINGTON is pastor of West Haven Presbyterian Church in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He and his life-partner Esther have a three-year-old son, Ezra, and can often be found running along the Tar River Trail.
