Not Just for Church Members Only

Tom Fuerst recently wrote and shared this (as usual, the highlights are mine) —

I believe it is a fundamental misunderstanding of the pastor’s job to assume that s/he is primarily paid by the church to meet the church’s endless felt needs in a Capitalist society. We run ourselves ragged fulfilling everyone’s desires, playing PR for Jesus, and acting as the CEO of a religious non-profit.

The pastor’s singular job is calling the church to be the church – a cruciform, suffering, grieving, hoping, praying, gentle, truth-telling, alternative people. We do this by attentiveness to and participation in the movement of God in people’s lives, in our local communities, and our world.

If I am a religious CEO or a PR rep for Jesus, then I’m being paid to stay busy. But if my job is attentiveness to the work of God then that requires silence, stillness, slowness, sacred conversation, study, and prayer — none of which are valued in our hyper-productive, always-working-but-never-arriving, Capitalist society.

But most churches don’t want pastors as I’m defining them. And, frankly, most pastors don’t want this either. The church wouldn’t feel like it’s getting its money’s worth (of course, “worth” as defined by Capitalism). And pastors wouldn’t feel like they’re being useful (of course, “useful” as defined by Capitalism). We do the ministry of the church to feel useful, but thereby, we alleviate the conscience of the church for, well, their refusal to actually do the ministry of the church.

So we keep plodding away. Proving our “usefulness.” Friars of felt needs. Chaplains of Capitalism. Priests of productivity.

But make no mistake. None of that makes us pastors. And THAT is why we are all burned out, depressed, fatigued, and unexcited about Jesus. We are doing work God never called us to do.