Pastor as Spiritual Guide
February 7, 2009
Patience is required when it comes to pastoral work. Patience is a fruit God’s Spirit produces in our lives as we abide in Jesus. Interestingly enough, Eugen Peterson contends that the working environment of many pastors erodes patience and rewards impatience. In The Contemplative Pastor he writes, “People are uncomfortable with mystery (God) and mess (themselves). They avoid both mystery and mess by devising programs and hiring pastors to manage them. A program provides a defined structure with an achievable goal. Mystery and mess are eliminated at a stroke. This is appealing. In the midst of the mysteries of grace and the complexities of human sin, it is nice to have something that you can evaluate every month or so and find out where you stand. We don’t have to deal with ourselves or with God, but can use the vocabulary of religion and work in an environment that acknowledges God, and so be assured that we are doing something significant.
I’m curious if other Pastors feel a tension between “running a church” and “caring for souls”?
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5 Comments to “Pastor as Spiritual Guide”
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I don’t know if I have any insight into how to deal with the struggle but I feel it. What is also most ironic is the people that are most focused on ‘running the church’ need the soul care more.
What to do?
I think it starts with the pastor himself. I’d argue that most of us dismiss the mystery and the mess with a stroke because that’s probably what we’ve done in our personal lives as well.
My hunch is that we (pastors) are going to have to get ruthless with being authentic with our own junk then pray to God that our congregations will as well and in the middle of that chaos we all can learn how to be better wounded healers.
Jamie, thanks for your post. This is such a crucial theme in pastoral work today.
Grant, right on. Doing ministry from a contemplative center would be a gift to any church.
Who decides what the pastor’s role should be? Run the show or cure souls? Is there a biblical pattern for shepherding the flock of God? John Frye wrote a book called Jesus the Pastor, worthwhile reading as a companion to Petersen’s the Contemplative Pastor.
If we are going to be “cure of souls” experts (yes the time has come for that term to be used again for the work of the pastor) we must prepare future leaders (shepherds, and ministry leaders) differently. The common ways today are either total neglect of preparation (few churches invest in the preparation of leaders beyond a gift inventory. Give me a break or should I tell you how I really feel?), or a yearly visit to some mega church conference. This is as good as it gets in most churches. How about belonging to an authentic small community that is doing life seriously, contemplatively, and others’ focused as well? If we truly believe that disciples’ context for maturity is small groupings doing life together, no one in a church should be in leadership who is not doing so!
There is a high demand for pastors to run the show, to follow the strategic initiatives that were arrived at with no eye for mystery, awe, contemplation, and what did Jesus do, and what is the church? and what is a disciple? and what is the gospel? and how do you form a “mess” into one that behaves as if Jesus were living in and through the mess?
Mystery and mysticism are bad words in some circles. The East has done us a disfavor. Used to be a Christian mystic was one who thought deeply about the reality of God, and the unfathomable depth of the Word of God, and the mess of humanity, before he did something about it. A sign of Christian maturity, methink, is a level of comfort with not knowing and in the not knowing live fully dependent lives that He who knows is running the show. In a society and a Church that believe that knowledge is golden, we who follow the Mystical one, must relearn to face life and ministry with the jewels of silence, contemplation, and humility, the tools of the mind that is focused on Christ. Amen. Christ, have mercy.
Grant, your comment of “It starts with the pastor himself” carries a lot of insight. Too often my attention turns toward others, when my attention needs to stay fixed with God who is wanting to continue his work of revealing and restoring the brokenness of my own soul.
Georges, really well said. Thanks for your insights (and passion)!
[...] that can’t. But then again, it’s fair to ask how they got there in the first place. A blog I read asked the question this week when did the shift happen for pastors to ‘run the church’ as opposed to care for souls. [...]
Jamie, thanks for this post, this is such a crucial issue in the church.