The Temptation and It’s Deliverance
It can be an ever present temptation for the pastor to give the people what they want. It’ll provide not only a good amount of job security but also a fair share of accolades. You’ll be seen as faithful, available, helpful, solid, loving, and all those other adjectives we pastors strive to have attached to our identity.
But some day, if we’re given the grace to get out of the mess, we wake up and realize that much of what we are doing on a daily basis could be done with only minimal interaction with the living God. Peterson asks an important question,
How do I keep the line sharp? How do I maintain a sense of pastoral vocation in the middle of a community of people who are hiring me to do religious jobs? How do I keep a sense of professional integrity in the midst of a people who are long practiced in comparative shopping and who don’t get overly exercised on the fine points of pastoral integrity? (Peterson, 13)
These are difficult questions. We’re not called to refuse people simply for the sake of holding a line. We are called to be servants. But fundamentally servants of the living God. (And that’s not exclusive to pastors). And God has given us the contours of our pastoral duty.
One of the best answers I’ve found to this question comes from Diane Langberg. I’ll close with her words:
It is not only his work to do with him, but it is his work done for him. You are not working for the ones suffering. You are not working for anyone else looking for their approval or certain status in the church or your community. You are his worker. If you work as if it is for the suffering, then you will be governed by them. Their needs will be your ruler and you will end up in their noise and chaos. They are considered and they must be understood, but the work is done in their life but for your God. He says this, not that; these limits, not those; this response, not that one. The needs of others are not the call nor are they your governance. If their suffering rules you, then the outcome is simply double of the problem. The call is from God, the governance is God’s alone, and from that place in him you enter into the suffering of another. (Langberg, 116)
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.Â
