Simple Life of a Pastor

The Pastor Who Does It All

There was a Pastor who worked hard. I mean, I could share with you the number of hours he technically would say he gave to working for the church, but that never gave justice to the full picture of how much of his life he devoted to the church.

Late night phone calls, family dinners interrupted, kids baseball games that were missed, funeral after funeral, wedding after wedding, speaking engagement leading into the sermon for the next week, Wednesday Bible studies, counseling sessions throughout the day, meetings with the Elders, meetings with the deacons, meetings with the disgruntled member, departures from the serving member. Time and time again this Pastor gives way more than he gets back.

This is viewed as noble. He tells himself that he is doing what he loves but what he loves is tearing apart his soul. He is growing tired and angry. His sermons have become opportunities for him to air out his grievances. His marriage has become a shell of itself. His church has become a quest to make ends meet. And his volunteers have grown cold. Something is wrong. People keep leaving. This pastor does not know what to do. He cannot give up. He will not give up.

He will… persevere.

That’s what God calls us to do right?

God does not call us to something just for us to quit.

But this Pastor’s soul is unhealthy.

Yes, he reads his Bible everyday. He prays three times a day. He listens to the sermons, he guards his heart and his mind. But when it comes to this church he is leading, there’s another spirit that pokes his head out from the corner of his mind. This spirit harbors up resentment and anger. This spirit gives the Pastor an edge.

This Pastor cannot live on the edge. This pastor ruins everything they touch. This church crumbles. His marriage was an allusion. His kids don’t trust him.

Something went wrong but for all the right reasons.

Maybe We Missed the Point

As Pastors we tend to do more than what we are called to do. I had an internship at a church once where everyday I came in I let my supervisor know I was there and then moseyed on toward the back of the church. Actually… I walked out of the back of the church and into a storage unit where I was responsible for “organizing” old VBS decorations.

I still have no idea what I was doing or where I was putting things. No one gave me any instructions in fact I have a strong inclination that I was being tested. See, my supervisor at the time told me he was preparing me for ministry. He said that most of ministry is doing the things no one else wants to do. Like organizing VBS decorations in a hot storage container in the Georgia heat.

Now, to be fair to me, maybe I was being prepared for ministry, but maybe this man had no idea what to really do with me.

See, what I have learned over the years is that many churches do not seem to have a strong idea on how to train up the next leaders. There’s no vision, no plan, and when my internship was over I essentially never showed up in that church again besides an occasional visit.

But here’s the thing: what my supervisor told me was true. Much of ministry is doing things no one else wants to do. But I also wonder if maybe the problem is not with the church as a whole but with the vision of church itself.

Maybe as Pastors we build institutions up that cause us to do tasks that are at the least outside of what God has actually called us to do. Maybe we have gotten a little lost on the journey.

What if we have been wasting years organizing VBS decorations in a hot storage container when God actually never called us to do such a thing.

What is a Pastor Called to Do?

Charles Jefferson, the American Congregationalist Pastor that lived from 1860-1937 wrote a book that transformed my life. I would actually say reading this book confirmed in me the call to ministry that I had on my life from before I even had a learner’s permit.

In his book ‘The Minister as Shepherd’, Charles lays out seven descriptions of what a Pastor is. Specifically a Pastor who is a shepherd.

1. The pastor is a “watchman”. A watchman was a man who took lookout in a watchtower, keeping an open eye for any potential dangers that could harm the people he watched over. He was a man expected to be alert. You could not be a drowsy man. You needed to be a man alert, sober minded, and ready to call action. (Ez. 3:17)
2. The Pastor is a “guard”. His role was not to only watch over his people, but to protect them. Charles says: “He was their defender. Sheep are among the most defenseless animals. They are not provided with weapons of attack or defense. They can neither bite nor scratch nor kick. They can run, but not as fast as their enemies. A sheep is no match for many an animal half its size. Its helplessness is pitiable. It is dependent absolutely on human strength and wisdom. Its safety lies entirely in man. Man is its refuge, its buckler, its shield, its rock, its fortress.”¹
3. The Pastor is a “guide”. People wander just like sheep do. Sheep are on the move but they need someone who can stand before them and lead the way to their destination. The Pastor leads his congregation down the pathway of discipleship to Jesus in this life.
4. The Pastor is a “physician”. A good shepherd notices when one of his sheep falls ill or breaks a leg. The good shepherd notices where the sheep has fallen short in whatever form it takes place and address the wound with the vision for the restoration of the sheep.
5. The Pastor is a “savior”. Sheep always wander. Sometimes they even get lost. They do not know how to find their way back and will often put themselves in harms way because of their ignorance. The Pastor being a good shepherd, notices the one that has gone astray and like the ultimate good shepherd, goes out on his quest to find the lost sheep and save it from its ruin.
6. The Pastor feeds. Sheep need to eat to survive just like any other creature there is. But the shepherd is assigned specifically to feed his flock. The Pastor feeds his sheep with the Word of God because the Word of God never comes back void(Is. 55:11). It fills up the soul.
7. The Pastor loves. Charles says: “love always individualizes. It takes delight…It is not love if it’s not personal and intimate.” The pastor loves his sheep by relating to his sheep, by putting himself within their midst. By not keep a stiff arm but by using his arms to draw others close.

We could easily pick apart some of these and place them on a hierarchy scale of which one is more of a priority for the Pastor or not but the point remains that Charles got it right when he refers to the pastor as a shepherd.

Paul David Tripp says:

I can do what I have been called to do with confidence, not because of who I am but because he is my Father, and he is glorious in every way.²

When we step back and remember what it is that we have actually been called to then we can re-approach our assignment with confidence that we are doing a worthy work to which we were called to. We were gifted to do.

But as we re-approach our work we need to be aware of some of the traps that can easily distract us from our mission.

What Are Some Traps for the Pastor?

1. Narcissm: There is not a single word that may be misused than this word. Granted, we live in a weird time of the culture war where every word has ways it is misused for political gain. But the word narcissism is a word that sadly is very relevant to church life. Chuck DeGroat says: “many narcissistic pastors have little ability to empower others in meaningful ways.”³ Narcissism is defined by Christopher Lasch as “longing to be freed from longing”⁴ which Chuck DeGroat explains as a person who is dissatisfied with their human limitations and seeks to become something other than human. They seek to become a type of superhuman that is not bound by human limitations. The way they do this in the church world is by centering the life and mission of the church around themselves. They rule their church rather than lead. They are the standard, not Jesus. As pastors we have to really guard our churches not just from wolves outside of the flock but even from the wolf within ourselves that can easily buy into the lie that we have it all figured out. We have to guard ourselves from making the life and fuel for the church us. Many times the way we do this is by inserting ourselves, our opinions, our philosophies and methodologies into every action of the church thereby refusing to let others lead in their God given capacity. When we do this we miss our calling to protect the sheep and to guide the sheep. And what’s worst is we are the danger for the sheep yet we don’t even see it.
2. Reacting: There is a good reason why many Pastors get caught up doing the things outside of their calling. It’s not necessarily just because we are all a little egotistical. Sometimes it’s just simply because we want to see the mission accomplished. We have a drive that pushes us past our limits and this is a good virtue to have. But sometimes we are reacting more than equipping. Reacting is easier than training up others to do the work of the ministry. Ronald Richardson says: “Having expectations for how the members of the congregation “ought” to be sets us up of being reactive rather than more objective. If we can keep our sense of how the larger system functions(not how we want it to function) and then have expectations only for how we will move during the action, our level of reactivity will automatically decrease. If we find ourselves fuming over a church meeting or an encounter with a church member, then we aren’t there yet.”⁵ People will not operate the way we “perfectly” envision them to. And if we are not careful in our disappointment for how something is going in the life of our church we will again insert ourselves not because we are acting as a guide but because we are reacting. We are reacting to a person’s seeming failure by us taking over in anger. This can cause us to take over many ministries that others should be growing in their giftedness in. When we do not see the floor getting mopped the way it should be mopped, often times we react by grabbing the mop and doing it ourselves. When we see the slides not getting made the way we want, we take the computer and make the slides ourselves. When we see that Bible study not getting started on our timeline and in our own vision for the ministry, we take it over and do it ourself. When we find ourselves reacting in ways like this it is a sign that we have failed to disciple others well. Its not entirely a reflection on the immaturity of our members but of our own immaturity in raising them up to do the work.
3. Comparison: There is always going to be a church or a ministry that is doing things better or bigger than you have the capacity to do. And it is sadly within our nature to compare our work to others. When we are not careful though, when we notice what others are doing we may find ourselves comparing what each other are getting accomplished and letting that be the fuel for us doing more. Sometimes this shows up in Pastors noticing that the Youth ministry at that church down the street is going on trips and having Youth conferences. Their Youth ministry looks like it’s busting out the seams with energy and growth. Yet this Pastor, who is too busy comparing his church to the one growing down the street does not take into account that his church has a Youth leader who is an unpaid volunteer. In his comparison he begins forcing the hand of the Youth leader to go outside of their means to compete with what the youth ministry down the road is doing. Or what about the example of the church who has an incredible Good Friday service. Your church maybe has not had time to promote and properly get the word out that you are going to try to do what that church down the road is doing. And so you throw something together last minute not because you thoughtfully and prayerfully considered it; but because you saw another church do it and you unwisely tried to do it too. Comparison often robs us and our people of doing things well. It throws us into the deep end of areas of ministry that maybe we should have thought out a little more. It robs us of taking into account where God has blessed our unique church and begins enforcing our people to compete and become like a church that is down the street. Being inspired by other churches is healthy, comparing ourselves to others churches only leads us to overextending ourselves.

These are just three dangers that can easily entrap us and pull us into doing things in the church that take us off mission. Not every church is called to do all of the same things. There is a diversity within the catholic church that is really beautiful to see in action and when done well, can be a good testament to the surrounding community of how the Spirit can work in the church at large.

The Need For a New Vision

Now that we have established the three dangers I believe that can easily entrap us, I believe now is the time to cast a new vision for what a Pastor can be.

In the Eugene Peterson biography ‘A Burning in my Bones’, author Winn Collier describes what the transition for Eugene becoming a Pastor was like. After years in the Academy and the potential to go to Yale and study with Brevard Childs, Eugene found himself sitting at a picnic with his wife and saying “I think I’ve always been a pastor-but I just didn’t know what a pastor was.”⁶

Do you remember when you first felt the call or the tug to be a Pastor?

I wish I could say defintively “yes, the exact moment was _______”. But the reality for me at least is that though there was the experience I had reading ‘The Minister as Shepherd’ and a moment maybe where I first felt like God put the idea in my mind, I sometimes wonder if I was always called ever since I was an infant. There has always been a pull towards being a Pastor/preacher that I have always had in me all the way back to my earliest memories. I would not have been able to explain what a pastor was, but there was something there that I seen routinely that pulled me in overtime.

And like Eugene, I think I’ve always had this pastoral spirit in me, I just did not know fully what it meant to be a pastor.

Eugene Peterson in his book ‘The Contemplative Pastor’ says this:

How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?⁷

As pastors we are always preaching a message. That part never actually turns off for us. The question we need to be asking ourselves routinely is “what message am I preaching in this moment?”

I fear for many of us we are preaching a message of a lost vision. A lost vision for what the church is and can be.

I fear for many of us we are preaching a message of aloofness. We are aloof to how the world has impacted the church and our failure to address the present concerns preaches to our congregations that God has nothing valuable to say in these critical areas of our cultural moment.

I fear for many of us we are preaching a message of ‘I’. I am the standard. I am the rockstar. I am the fuel for this engine. Our failure to guard our congregations from our shadow side has preached a gospel message where we are the center of God’s grand narrative and not Jesus.

We do not have to be this way though.

For Eugene Peterson there was turning point in his life where his pastoral ministry changed for the better. In that same biography there is a detailed account of Eugene wrestling with pastoral ministry in a way I believe we all have.

Eugene had just gone through a building project with his church. They were in a new building and suddenly energy had started to dwindle. Pews started to get emptier and emptier as Sundays came and went. For Eugene this period is what he referred to as the badlands. He so desperately wanted to leave, even interviewing for different placements at other churches.

Will Collier describes Eugene in the badlands like this:

Eugene felt adrift. He felt disconnected from the physical stuff of his life: the family he loved, the land he loved, the physical labor and exertion he loved. he felt he’d become a successful pastor but not a very good human.

What was funny about this season of Eugene’s life to me was when he got advice about what to do with his congregation to get the energy back, the advice he received from an older/wiser pastor was to “start another building campaign.”

Essentially “do more”.

There is a current amongst pastors that pulls at us. And if we are not careful it will rob us of what we were actually called to do all those years ago when we first felt God’s direction hit our lives.

Will goes onto describe a conversation Eugene had with Pastor Iain Wilson of the historic Baltimore Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church. A pastor who inspired Eugene.

Weeks later, he(Eugene) called Wilson and explained his vague sense of the kind of pastor he wanted to be: slow, personal, attuned to God and to the lives of those in his parish. Eugene wondered if it was possible to transform from a competitive pastor to a contemplative pastor-“a pastor who was able to be with people without having an agenda for them, a pastor who was able to accept people just as they were and guide them gently and patiently into a mature life in Christ but not get in the way.

Does that resonate with you?

Maybe for some of us we got into pastoral ministry because we wanted to lead building projects and compete with the church down the street. I would like to hope though that for the majority of us though we got into pastoral ministry because we wanted to meet people where they were and help them grow into Christlikeness over the long haul.

See those dangers can easily rob us from the joy of being obedient to the call God has on our lives. But they can be just that. They can be just dangers, they do not have to be reality.

Sometimes I fear we’ve all settled with letting our role as Pastor be morphed into something it never had to be to begin with.

What if we went back? What if we hit reset? What if we returned to our original heart behind ever wanting to be a pastor to begin with?

Maybe the building wouldn’t get built. Maybe our ministry would feel slow. But maybe we’d actually see our congregations live life in the presence of God and not in the presence of busyness.

That’s the vision.

To shepherd real people, from where they are to where they can be in the pursuit of becoming a little more like Jesus each and everyday.

To be clear, you may end up doing somethings along the way that are not necessarily what you were “called” to do. And that’s okay. Sweeping the floors can be good for your soul. But what’s not good for your soul, is losing sight of why you started in the first place.

1. Charles Jefferson in his book ‘The Minister as Shepherd” (pg. 38) ↩︎
2. Paul David Tripp in his book “Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry’ (pg.123) ↩︎
3. Chuck DeGroat in his book ‘When Narcisim Comes to Church'(pg. 74) ↩︎
4. Christopher Lasch in ‘The Culture of Narcissim’ ↩︎
5. Ronald Richardson in his book ‘Becoming a Healthier Pastor'(pg.76) ↩︎
6. Will Collier’s ‘A Burning in My Bones’ biography of Eugene Peterson(pg.121) ↩︎
7. Eugene Peterson’s book ‘The Contemplative Pastor'(pg. 17) ↩︎