Pastors - Better a Slave of Christ than a Slave of Culture

Uh-oh! Someone caught Linda and I having fun in Times Square on Monday.

There was once a woman in my church who saw me on a Wednesday afternoon in the grocery store. Uh-oh, I thought. I've been caught shopping for food! She had an angry sneer on her face. She hustled out of the store and immediately reported me to one of our church's Elders. "I saw John in the grocery store in the middle of the day when he should have been in his office at the church building!" She didn't have a clue.

Most people in the church who write job descriptions for the pastor have never read and immersed themselves in the Scriptures. They don't understand what "pastor" is really about, and write the job out in terms of this world's power structures, or from a secular business model. They don't have a clue. Inadvertently, these job descriptions shape us into this world's mold.

I don't have a formal job description (yay and hallelujah!). Yes, I do things, and these doings come out of my being-with-Jesus. Some of the things I do are... 

• I pray.
• I study.
• I preach.
• I teach classes in our church.
• I meet with people in our church family and disciple them.
• I (along with Linda) help people in our church family.

I do these things within my church family. I don't shepherd other flocks. (This is different from speaking and teaching at different churches, which I am called to do and love to do. But I am not the shepherd of those congregations.)

Eugene Peterson writes:

"Pastors have an extremely difficult job to do, and it's no surprise that so many are discouraged and ready to quit. Though it may not seem like it at face value, pastors are persecuted in North America, and I don't believe I am exaggerating when I say that it is far worse than in seemingly more hostile countries. Our culture doesn't lock us up; it simply and nicely castrates us, neuters us, and replaces our vital parts with a nice and smiling face. And then we are imprisoned in a mesh of "necessities" that keep us from being pastors." (Peterson and Marva J. Dawn, The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call, Kindle Locations 2175-2178)

Some of these "necessities" are laid on emasculated pastors by church boards (not my leaders!). These things are burning pastors out.

Peterson's mission is to set pastors free from these pseudo-necessities. Because "being a slave of Christ is far better than being a slave of culture." (Ib.)