The Unnecessary Pastor

This morning I felt like taking a short break from my exploration of being the church in a postmodern society (a postmodern can do this - just switch worlds for a while), and begin reading a book I've wanted to read but hadn't got around to. This is Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson's "The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call" (Eerdmans 2000).

It took as far as the first two pages of the introduction to the first chapter to meet the first challenge. Let me read it to you - it's a bit long so get comfortable:

"We begin with the obvious: the gospel of Jesus Christ is profoundly countercultural. 'I came to cast fire upon the earth,' said Jesus; 'and would that it were already kindled!' (Luke 12:49).

"There are powerful cultural forces determined to turn Jesus into a kindly, wandering peasant sage, teaching us how to live well, dispensing homespun wisdom, arousing our desire for God, whetting our appetite for higher truths - all of which are good things. These same forces are similarly determined to turn us, the church's pastors and leaders, into kindly religious figures, men and women who provide guidance through difficult times, who dole out inspiration and good cheer on a weekly schedule, who provide smiling reassurance that 'God's in his heaven . . .,' and keep our congregations busy at tasks that bolster their self-esteem - also good things.

"And if they don't turn us into merely nice people, they turn us into replicas of our cultural leaders, seeking after power and influence and prestige. These insistent voices drum away at us, telling us pastors to go out and compete against the successful executives and entertainers who have made it to the top, so that we can put our churches on the map and make it big in the world.

"In such a culture, it is continuously difficult to cultivate an everyday identity that derives from the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. No matter how many crosses we hang around our necks, paste on our bumpers, and place on our churches, the radical life of repentance and baptism is mighty hard to sustain.

"But the Christian is a witness to a new reality that is entirely counter to the culture. The Christian faith is a proclamation that God's kingdom has arrived in Jesus, a proclamation that puts the world at risk. What Jesus himself proclaimed and we bear witness to is the truth that the sin-soaked, self-centered world is doomed.

"Pastors are in charge of keeping the distinction between the world's lies and the gospel's truth clear. Not only pastors, of course - every baptized Christian is part of this - but pastors are placed in a strategic, countercultural position. Our place in society is, in some ways, unique: no one else occupies this exact niche that looks so inoffensive but is in fact so dangerous to the status quo. We are committed to keeping the proclamation alive and to looking after souls in a soul-denying, soul-trivializing age.

"But it isn't easy. Powerful forces, both subtle and obvious, attempt to either domesticate pastors to serve the culture as it is or to seduce us into using our position to become powerful and important on the world's terms. And so we need all the help we can get to maintain our gospel identity."


Well - there it is. I wonder if it challenged you at all, and if so in what way? What are the forces that most push you around? In my case, certainly my denomination (Baptist) doesn't seem to really understand what we are doing at Beth Tephillah. Oh, they don't actually resist us, but neither do we feel kosher in some hard to define way. And, of course, society at large generally dismisses us, but that ceased troubling me long ago.

No, in my case it is the expectations of the congregation (in general - no one in particular, and certainly not everyone) which most affect me. I WANT to do what I truly believe Jesus intends for the church in this time, and I TRY, but people are hesitant to go with me. Don't you get tired of simply meeting people's needs, keeping them comfortable and happy, trying to "take away the pain", when all along you know, because it's how Jesus has dealt with you, that if they would only stick it out a bit longer, and take their eyes off themselves and focus on him and the life he offers, they could probably take the "pain" away themselves, and most likely someone else's as well. Or the "pain" would no longer seem the most important thing in their lives.

Jesus didn't come to make us comfortable, but to stir up a hornet's nest. Perhaps, to light a fire under us, would be a better metaphore. Or, better still, to light a fire within us! Luke 12:49 begins to take on some meaning. And perhaps my writing this will stir up a hornet's nest in my church which will make ME uncomfortable!