Why Are Pastors So Irritating?!

The work of pastors and other church leaders has drastically changed in my lifetime. A generation ago, had you asked most people to define the work and responsibilities of a pastor, you would have heard some variation of “teaching the scripture; shepherding a flock; coaching people’s spiritual life and so forth.” Now, many people – including pastors – are a bit unsure about what pastors are supposed to do.

If you notice the models for church leadership through the centuries, you will see a pattern that looks something like this:

33AD -300AD a pastor was a shepherd/worship leader;

300AD – 1500AD, the lower clergy pastors were meant to be models of spiritual life, teachers/spiritual fathers while upper clergy were community leader and political authorities;

1500 – 1900, the model for Protestant pastors was scholar/teachers

1900 -1970, the model for Protestant pastors was businessman/community developer

1970, the model for Protestant pastors has been entertainer/entrepreneur

Well, why not?

If Holy Matrimony is no longer a sacred covenant one is making between people and God but rather a photo op that acknowledges a secular marriage contract in a church building – what is the pastor except a nice man that stands in the center of the wedding for some reason saying a few lines the bride and groom agree for him to say?

If church is a business involving making unbelievers as comfortable as possible, the crowds as large as possible, and the finances as dependable as possible – then the last thing one needs is a pastor getting too preoccupied with teaching the scriptures, or overly concerned about the spiritual health of the flock.

In the spiritual shifts we have made, the biblical role of shepherd can become an obstruction to the development of a “great church.” Some leadership development conferences say as much.
In today’s reading (2 Samuel 12) Nathan the prophet confronts the king with an uncomfortable message: there is sin in your life and you must repent. In this case, the king humbly accepts the message and repents. That is the exception rather than the rule! Most of the time, people are unhappy about being confronted and quickly move to: “and who made you a judge over anyone?” Most of us pastors respond to that reaction with an admission of our own sinfulness and an apology for having brought the matter up in the first place.

In this matter as in so many, the church has been going the wrong way and is cooperating with the world, the flesh and the devil to dismantle everything holy, sacred, and “other” about the work of the Kingdom of God in the midst of a lost world. Pastors and church leaders have lost their belief in their own calling. They have been frantically trying to remold ministry in ways that remove the threat of the pastoral office to contemporary culture and secular power.

Moving the other direction is difficult and full of spiritual peril, not the least of which is pride and the seduction of ecclesiastical power. Nonetheless, we must move in the other direction if our churches are to be places of holiness and grace instead of spiritual amusement parks.

The generic word for church leader in the New Testament is “elder.” Eldership was an office in Israel before the coming of Christ. In fact, the English word “priest” is merely a shortened form of the word “presbyter,” or elder. Elders have different gifts – he or she may shepherd people and thus are called pastors. Others are prophets or evangelists. Still others teach, have gifts of administration or functions of church government. Some elders are called into full ordination, and may serve in some full-time capacity, whenever possible. Other elders are, in essence, lay pastors.

Together, elders are called to lead local churches and the Church universal in ways that are consistent with the faith “once and for all delivered to the saints.” Since the earliest times, three major orders of ministry have been recognized within the Church, and thus most groups, of whatever denomination will have some sort of three-tiered leadership structure as follows:

The Bishop - The bishop emerged early in the government of the Church as something like a chairman of the local elders. Evangelicals in independent churches normally call the person who functions as a bishop, the “senior pastor.” In older denominations, the bishop will “oversee,” – that is what the word means – the leaders of many local bodies. A bishop ordains new ministers, represents the pastoral authority of his fellow ministers in any given local church or geographical area of the church, and connects his flock to the church of Jesus everywhere and in all times.

Pastor - The pastor, priest, or presiding elder – whatever we call him -- nurtures the flock, teaches the ways of God, and administers the sacraments. He or she is called to parent the spiritual lives of those who follow Christ in word, deed and example.

Deacon - from the earliest days of the Church deacons have served the people in whatever tasks required in its daily life. The earliest deacons were selected to oversee the benevolence department of the Church in Jerusalem. (See Acts 6.) Most Christian churches see the deaconate as a step toward full ordination for some, but a fulfilling role of service in and of itself for others. Trustees, administrative board members, lay pastors, and various types of local church leaders fall into this category. I like to think of deacons as serving churches in the way that nurses serve hospitals. They are the backbone and most precious of all the pastoral offices and one should not attempt any level of ministry unless he or she can function as a deacon.

So why can pastors be so irritating? Sometimes because they are tired. Sometimes because they are sinful. Sometime because they are dumb. These days, pastors can also be irritating because they have lost their way and are trying to please a world that is spiritually dead and has no category for the work we are called to do.

St. Radio of Detroit

A friend once told me about a sermon he had heard on the radio in Detroit. Some preacher huffed and puffed as he yelled out, “When I came to this town, there was not even one apostle here. Now the place is crawling with them!”

Probably, no one place needs to be “crawling with apostles;” not even Detroit!

In a few blogs awhile back, I wrote about the word “apostolic.” I said that apostolicity is a quality that the Nicene Creed claims is a requirement of the true Church. To be apostolic, the Church must teach what the apostles taught, and maintain living links with the apostles by doing what they did.

This means that an apostle is an essential part of the church’s foundation.

The question is: what exactly is an apostle? What was (or is!) the nature of their authority? Was their authority passed down to others, and if so, how?

Questions like these lead us to some of the most controversial subjects in the Christian church, since all Christians claim to be spiritual descendants of the apostles. In a sense then, we all claim to be “apostolic.” However, who gets to decide whether a church is, or is not, apostolic?

Nearly every believer will affirm that the first apostles, the men Jesus selected while he was here in the flesh, were unique. They are the foundation of the Christian church. No one since them has had quite the same sort of authority that they had. So while some Christians believe that there have been (or perhaps still are) other “apostles,” no few Christians have ever tried to add a new person to the unique position held by the original twelve apostles.

Given that important criterion, most Christians would cautiously use the word “apostle” to refer to people who have demonstrated certain kinds of gifts and callings.

The original apostles felt they had the authority to choose Matthias to be an apostle, and appointed him as such to fill the place of Judas. Paul (who was not one of the twelve) also claimed to be an apostle. Others were also called apostles in the New Testament.

But, to return to our original question: what is an apostle exactly?

In the New Testament, the central quality of an apostle seems to be that of raising up new communities of believers in new cultural contexts.

Foreign missionaries, who sometimes establish churches within new cultures, often demonstrate apostolic gifts and callings.

In this light, we may apply the title “apostle” to such historical figures as St. Patrick of Ireland, St. Columba of Scotland, and certainly to the incomparable Francis Asbury of the United States. These men of God established new communities of faith.

We may say then that an apostle is the "first wave" of the Church into new territory. He or she helps the first believers in a given culture "set up shop." This goes beyond the work of evangelism, since an evangelist may win converts to the faith without forming them into functioning, covenant communities.

An apostle sees “the big picture.” He builds local churches into institutions that will remain effective and faithful long after he is dead.

Most of Ireland became Christian because of the work of St. Patrick, (389-461 AD). His story is one of extraordinary courage and dependence upon the power of God. He escaped from slavery and then willingly returned to the people who had kidnapped him because he was moved to tell them the good news of Jesus. He shared the gospel through his word and miraculous demonstrations of power and grace.

St. Columba, (521-597AD), likewise established a Christian community on the island of Iona from where he carried out the aggressive evangelization of Scotland.

Today, the English church remembers Augustine of Canterbury who was the first Roman missionary to Britain. There had been believers in Great Britain for centuries, evangelized by the robust Celtic Christians. However, Augustine (not to be confused with St. Augustine of Hippo) organized and formed the church that has endured through the centuries and which lay the foundation for all of English-speaking Christianity.

In the eighth century, two brothers -- Cyril and Methodus -- gave their lives to evangelize the Slavic peoples. To this day, the Russian alphabet is called Cyrillic because St. Cyril created it to translate the Bible into the Slavic languages.

Closer to home, Francis Asbury, (1745-1816), was the first Methodist bishop to the United States. When he realized the enormity of his task, he took a vow of celibacy. He would fully dedicate his 85 years to planting churches in every village and town in the growing American Republic. His story is an extraordinary saga of Christian apostleship to our nation. Every Methodist, Pentecostal, Nazarene, and Charismatic church in our country owes its existence to the ministry of this man. From its early meaning of “messenger” the word “apostle” has evolved to mean something much more to Christians.

So it is not such a good idea to call oneself an apostle!

Most times, using the title in one’s life time invites appropriate rejection and ridicule.

Fortunately though, one does not need the title of “apostle” in order to discharge the function of one. As the Church continues its march into the various cultures of the world and establishes communities of faith in them, it will need the continuing ministry of “apostles,” whatever we call them.

In some cases, a place may even need more than one apostle: like Detroit, for instance!

Arizona Immigration, Queen Victoria, and Kendall Kartler

Six years ago today, Trish and I went to John C. Lincoln hospital to wait with Tom and Glorie Kartler for Kendall’s arrival.

She took her time. A long, long....long time. She would get here her own way and at her own pace.

We all waited in a little room with old magazines with several other nervous families, telling jokes and eating snacks.

Hours and hours later, Talitha, my exhausted daughter, delivered a ruddy bundle of energy into the world: Kendall Della Kartler.

Her middle name was a gift from her Dad’s delightful grandmother.

Her last name came from her father’s German/Romanian heritage.

Her first name floated out of heaven into a book of baby’s names. Once Talitha and Tyson read the name aloud, magic leapt from the book into Talitha’s womb, where it stamped itself on the little girl inside. That is why, when Kendall burst into the world, she was already carrying three names, her families’ stories, layers and layer of mischief, and the most infectious smile you have ever seen.

I wouldn’t get a chance to enjoy Kendall for the first few months of her life.

A week after Kendall was born, Trish had an aneurysm. She would gradually wake up over several weeks and then take several months to reenter her life. The trauma of those months would trust our family into a series of changes. That is why I am in Nashville, Tennessee now, writing about my granddaughter’s birthday while she is in Phoenix, Arizona.

I called her this morning though, as she was getting ready for school. I will call later today, on Skype because she wants me to see her new earrings.

Meanwhile, I am thinking about several other things that occurred on this date.

Sarah Josepha Hale wrote Mary had a Little Lamb in 1830.

Samuel Morris sent the world’s first telegraph message from Washington D.C. to Baltimore in 1844.

Zacchary Taylor captured Monterrey, Mexico in 1846.

Queen Victoria was born in 1819.

It’s the feast day of St. Methodius and St. Cyril, missionaries to the Slavs.

All of those things are important, and, as I think about them, somewhat connected to what I think is the important story of the day.

Zacchary Taylor was in Monterrey because the American government was busy at the time chopping off the Northern states of Mexico. The first great wave of Mexican immigrants into the United States was thus made possible, simply by moving the border several hundred miles to the south. This American expansion into Mexico cut the Mexican state of Sonora in half, creating the territory of Arizona. That is where Kendall would be born one hundred and fifty eight years later.

As for St. Methodius and Cyril; they converted my son-in-law’s ancestors in Romania.

We sang Mary had a Little Lamb to Kendall when she was little, so a special word of thanks to Sarah Josepha Hale. I don’t think Kendall liked the song all that much. However, everyone knows that it is mandatory for English-speaking parents to sing the silly song to babies, so we did. I would like to go on record saying that the way Kendall rearranged the lyrics was not our fault.

I don’t think Queen Victoria would have approved of my granddaughter’s way of expressing herself. Kendall was simply not made for a Victorian age. Fortunately, the two were not forced to live at the same time in history. So, other than sharing a birthday, I simply cannot find any way to connect the icon of English propriety and protocol to my granddaughter.

Finally, I suppose that had Samuel Morris not invented the telegraph, Alexander Graham Bell might not have invented the telephone. The telephone made the internet possible. That’s how I will be able to see Kendall’s new earrings here in Tennessee. So my answer to Morris’s famous message – “what has God wrought?” – is, “a mischievous six year old with new earrings.” I have no idea what he would think about that but it’s all I have for him today.

Speaking of the past -- I recently discovered that my wife is a direct descendant of Suzanna Wesley. That makes Kendall one of Suzanna’s daughters. If the people up in Heaven see us – as I think they do – then perhaps Suzanna Wesley, along with all those who contributed to make this delightful little girl all that she is, are smiling at what they see. If she – and all the rest of Kendall’s ancestors have the sort of judgment I think they have, they are all agreeing with me that they did a good job.

May God grant all of us who are a little closer, and a bit more directly responsible for her well-being, do all we can to help her grow into the gifted, spirited and unique person she is already becoming.

Happy Birthday, Kendall Della Kartler.

Can You See Him?

I'm in Vancouver right now for a conference. You can expect all kinds of interesting blogs about my time so far. It is a fascinating, cultural city, and I'm enjoying being around so many great thinkers of our time. I try to write a blog for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It is a goal of mine to keep it up regardless of how busy I may be.

But I'm in Vancouver at a conference!

I have a blog ready for Friday. For today, I'm going to have a guest blog once again.

Meet me back here on Friday and I promise to dazzle you with my wisdom! If not, I'll give you something to read on your coffee break.

For today, please take a few minutes to read this blog about how difficult it can be to see God, even when you try your hardest.

http://beatriceblount.blogspot.com/2010/03/can-you-see-him.html

The Morning After Pill: Guest Blog

I am not posting my normal blog today. Instead, I have a guest blogger's post.

Middle Tennessee has experienced tremendous loss and destruction in the last few days, and I am working with my colleagues to determine how we can be of most help to those suffering around us.

My daughter wrote about the flood, and I thought it was an appropriate post for today. Please take a few minutes to read her thoughts. You will no doubt empathize with her if you are a Tennessee resident. For those of you reading from other states or countries, you will be able to understand what we are going through.

Please continue to be safe and pray for those in need as well as those who are trying to help.

http://beatriceblount.blogspot.com/2010/05/morning-after-pill.html