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Do You Want an Honest Pastor?

Yesterday Rachel Held Evans posted a plea for pastors to be truthful and authentic with their congregations.

Her hope being that pastors would share their doubts and struggles, hopes and fears with their people. That there would be a space for pastors to tell people where they really stand on tough issues and for the congregation to take that journey with them.

It was a brilliant post, and as the comments testify it struck a nerve with many.

But I wonder …is that really what congregations want? Do the people in the pews want their pastor to be honest?

It sounds nice, and I think at first glance most of us would want to say yes. Of course we want honesty from the clergy, of course we would stand by them if they shared their struggles and voiced unpopular opinions.

Would you really though?

What if that struggle wasn’t “I’m feeling exhausted” but “I’m having a hard time getting off these painkillers after my back surgery”?

What if the doubts were about a doctrine in the church constitution, like creationism?

What if the unpopular opinion was about the way the Church spends it money, or a criticism of how excluded it can make people feel who sometimes vote for the other party?

What if the sermon about how we treat the least of these was going to use the homosexual community as its example?

Would you want your pastor to be honest then?

Or would we rather they kept those sorts of things to themselves? Do we really want a pastor who only seems authentic, but doesn’t actually challenge the status quo?
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After you read Rachel’s post check out this post by Adam McHuge about when pastors are honest and get burned for it.

Grace and peace