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“I’m a pastor.”

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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. There are lots of memes and social media posts going around that joke about how people’s first response, when realizing they are talking to a pastor, is to either stop swearing or apologize for swearing. In my experience, this is assuredly the number one reaction.  But, the second is usually to either talk about their church upbringing or their spiritual background, sometimes even confessing why they haven’t attended religious services recently.  And, if we are lucky enough to get to this one, the third reaction is usually to ask a spiritual question or talk about a spiritual experience they have had without holding back.  With humor, we tend to focus on the first reaction the most because, well, it is first, and often we do not stick with the conversation long enough (for whatever reason) to … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Role of pastor

Making sense of preaching

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When I talk about myself out loud, I don’t always make sense.  I like tomatoes, sugar and salt, but I hate ketchup … except on fried white fish.  I dislike walking because it makes me tired, but I love running marathons.  I hate science fiction and fantasy stories because I can never get behind that stuff actually happening, yet the resurrection of Jesus Christ fits into my realistic worldview.  And I’m overwhelmingly an auditory learner, but I’ve never been good at sitting still or listening to sermons in my spare time just for funzies.  And I’m an introvert who does much better in smaller groups, so the idea of preaching (having all of that attention on me at one time) has never been something that I get excited about.  In fact, if I’m honest, I quite often get sick of hearing myself (and others) talk, so I’m doubtful that preaching will ever be my favorite part of ministry. Yet, even in all of these paradoxes, I’m starting to love preaching – not the actual doing part of it (I … [Read more...]

Tagged With: preaching

5 things I’ve learned on my fifth ordination anniversary

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Someone in my presbytery recently texted me:  “Happy 5th ordination anniversary.” Our presbytery prints ordination anniversaries in the weekly email, but without that this colleague would have probably forgotten to send the text and I might not have realized my ordination anniversary had come and gone. Here are five things I have learned in my first four years of ministry. (Rest assured, I learned way more than five, but these are the five that seem most memorable right now.) I don’t know exactly what anyone is experiencing, even if I have lived through a similar life event. I put this one first because I learned this one during one of my very first months in ministry. I went to visit someone in the hospital and as this person was sharing with me just how frustrated she felt, I casually, unthinkingly said, “I know.” She corrected me, “No, you really don’t.” She wasn’t kind or gentle about it, but she was right.  I didn’t know then and it wasn’t because I was a first-year … [Read more...]

Megachurch or a great church swap?

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Over a decade ago now (and yes, I do feel old now that I can actually count in decades!), I attended a satellite church service, which was part of the Mars Hill Church.  We sat in room that felt like a shoebox — theater-like, all facing the small stage in front and of course, the big screen.  The music was live, and there was a campus pastor who coordinated worship and prayed, but when it came time to hear the word of God preached, all eyes were on the screen to hear a singular message broadcasted over multiple cities delivered by just one preacher.  I wouldn’t say it was a bad church experience, but it was certainly an odd one, and one that made me wonder about the theology of a megachurch with one preacher. The church certainly began with one teacher and preacher, so is it so wrong to stick with that model?  But the thing is – the church may have began with Jesus, but even Jesus enlisted many more than 12 understudies to learn from him and carry his message throughout the world.  … [Read more...]

Celebrating singleness

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I’m single, and I still find it challenging to write about being single in ministry. But I am going to do it anyway, because I believe the lack of attention may be part of the problem. There are all sorts of great examples of Christian singles in the Bible … ahem, Jesus.  But not just Jesus.  Paul is probably the second most famous single; he even spent some time writing about ministering as a single.  It appears that Martha was single, and John the Baptist too, just to name a few (okay, I’ll stop rhyming – happy accident there!).  And, there are all sorts of Christians in the early church who have a “non-disclosed” marital status who very well might have been single as well. Yet, the church today often struggles with how to minister to singles.  I’ve read countless times that starting a singles ministry is “useless” at a church because no one really wants to be in it, and anyone who does come is just there to “get out of it,” so to speak. Some people might say that the challenge … [Read more...]

Tagged With: family life

Can Jesus teleport?

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Can Jesus teleport? A child asked this at the last church I served. And the response from a nearby pastor was: “Yes.  Remember when the disciples were all together in the upper room after Jesus died with the door closed, because they were afraid, and all at once, he stood there among them?” The faith leader was sharing the story of John 20:19 without just citing it. This child’s question was so great is because it demonstrates a sincere desire to get to know Jesus from within the world the child lives in.  The beginning of any relationship is starting with who we are and from there, asking who someone else is.  Because Jesus most often doesn’t talk back to us like many of our earthly relationships, we sometimes skip this step.  We are tempted to read our Bibles or even just listen to stories about Jesus and never move beyond the Jesus on the pages.  We don’t take that extra step of wondering and synthesizing how Jesus fits into our world as we know it.  You could say we keep him … [Read more...]

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