Last weekend was great. I went hiking, spent time with family, enjoyed a parade, watched a race end, went to a church service and barbequed with friends. I felt challenged and encouraged by different encounters throughout the weekend, and believe I did the same for those around me. So my question is: Is this the role a pastor should play in the community?
Perhaps not surprisingly my answer would be yes. I feel like I loved well this weekend, caring about close friends and family, fellow believers from both my own and other congregations, and also made connections with many people outside of the church community. The way God has been moving in my life in recent years tells me that this is my vocation in this world.
But I am pulled. I know this looks and seems lazy. Not just to others, but to me. Shouldn't I be in my office more? Shouldn't I be planning more official events with specific times allocated for "fellowship," "worship," and "teaching"? This model is so pervasive and I find it hard to resist. The church culture tells me that this is right. Yet the Spirit is telling me something completely different.
I think I am coming to the belief that a pastor who really wants to follow the guidance of the Spirit is going to look lazy. He or she will spend a lot of time having coffee or meals with people, talking about deep or trivial matters, calling or e-mailing friends, neighbors and strangers. It isn't a typical 9-5 job. It is a way of life. It is a matter of being. I believe the role of pastor is to be a good friend. It isn't a matter of work and effort, but ontology. It is the demonstration of incarnational orthopraxy.
Any thoughts?
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: Finishing Beyond Foundationalism, and just started Truth and Method by Hans-Georg Gadamer.
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5 comments:
allz I knowz is that your CTK student ministries webpage is boring. Spend some time on that! For inspiration always refer back to 1st Pres spokane's amazine website.
Yes, it puts the o-ring back in boring. On my priority list, website is about #158. Peace-out B!
I think that you need to re-read "The contemplative pastor" again, my friend. I really don't think that it is lazy at all, and it's not just because I do it also:). I think that we as shepherds are called to meet and hang out with people, but this part of our job became spoiled when the church began to run like a company and wanted "the right people on the bus". Is this the calling of the church, to be good to great? or does God have something planned for us that we will never see because we are looking to Him as a CEO and not our Lord?
lazy hippie.
In my book “Paradoxy: Creating Christian Community Beyond Us and Them” (http://www.practicingparadoxy.com/), I suggested “Incarnational Orthodoxy” as way to describe a theological orientation that transcends the doctrine-driven “Propositional Orthodoxy” of conservative Christianity and the praxis-driven “Ethical Orthodoxy” of liberal Christianity in a way that incorporates (there’s that “enfleshing” root again) the strengths of each without turning them into idols.
Incarnational Orthodoxy returns the term “orthodoxy” to its literal roots (ortho=right/appropriate, doxy=praise/worshipful response), so that our experience of the all encompassing love of the incarnate Christ drives both what we are, what we are becoming, what we believe, and what we do.
In Christ’s love,
Ken+
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