I’ve written a couple of articles disagreeing with a particular description of pastoral ministry. First, in response to Tim Suffield, I said “Yes and no” to the statement that as a pastor you don’t have a job. I said both “yes and no” because I agree that there can be particularly unhelpful connotations if we start to think in terms of work/jobs through the prism of post-industrial employment and especially when we see that kind of employment as functioning closer to servitude than it should. Furthermore, Jesus warns against “hirelings” replacing shepherds and I know this is Tim’s central concern. I think that Tim was trying to capture something of what John Piper was saying when he wrote “brothers we are not professionals.” However, I said “no” because pastors do have jobs. They are paid and they are paid to work. They are accountable to their churches now and ultimately to the Lord.
I then wrote responding to John Barach’s offering that we can say that pastors’ are paid to have leisure. The word leisure is unhelpful because it creates an impression of the pastor as someone engaging in a hobby. Actually, both responses are relevant to unpaid elders as well. We don’t want the man who works 8 hours in a day and then comes home to prepare sermons, visit a sick church member in hospital or help someone to face a particular life crisis in a godly way as pursuing a hobby. It’s important to be clear here that I’m not attempting to second guess John’s approach to pastoral ministry. It could be that he means something different to the things we associate with the words used. However, words do have meanings and normal usage. Language matters. If you describe pastoral ministry as “leisure” then it will affect how people view it.
And this is particularly important, at least in the UK context where I think we have had to work hard against a particular image of pastoral ministry and even more so when we are trying to encourage people to plant and pastor into urban contexts. Now, you won’t find many long term pastors or elders who do think in terms of leisure when it comes to their role, especially in these contexts. If they thought that they were going to spend their days in coffee shops and their study with the occasional drop in on an elderly lady in hospital then reality quickly kicked in. However, I do think that we find that people can have an expectation of how pastors spend their time. Additionally and crucially, I believe that this kind of imagery has affected how we identify, train and equip potential pastors. That’s why the language matters.
So, how do I want to talk about the pastor’s role? Well, first of all, I want to describe it as something that they are called to do. Now, when I talk about “calling” there’s a risk that we think in mystical terms with focus purely on inner calling. I align with the view that until you have been externally called to serve a church then you don’t have a call. All the same, it is a calling. It’s a joyful calling. Scripture is certain of that and church family have a responsibility to help with that. It’s a dangerous calling too as Tripp puts it, not something to be entered into lightly.
This means that the calling is to work. The dominant image used to liken it to is shepherding. Scripture also likens it to farming, to soldiers and to athletes in training. We must not underestimate that there is hard work involved both so that those of us in this work are ready for that and so that churches understand their responsibilities too. It can be work with a wage if the person is being freed up from other things. The point about not being hirelings is not about that but about heart attitudes. Certainly, if you have been called to this work, then the issue of pay should be low down your thinking and my own attitude has always been that if we found ourselves in a situation where a church called me but found itself unable to pay then that would not be a barrier.
So, we think of it as work but not as servitude. It’s work in the sense that work was originally meant to be, connected into the life of the family, not separate out from it. So, it is work because it’s part of our creation mandate to fill and subdue/tend and keep. It’s also work because when we are paid, this enables us to provide for and protect our families.
It’s accountable work. I am not free to do as I please. To be sure, it’s not the kind of work you can or should micro-manage. You can’t show progress and results every hour or every day, perhaps not even in one year but it is still something where fruit is expected and where you have to give an account. As I’ve said before, this is both an account to God and to the church that have called you.
I also think it is helpful to think in terms of family and household. This is a connection Scripture seems to me to make. Pastors and elders have a familial responsibility for the church and whilst I understand the intent of words like “friend” and “befriending” I think this is a better type of language. Certainly, the apostle Paul seems to prefer talking in terms of brothers and sisters and fathers and sons when describing pastoral relationships.
We should talk about pastoral vocation in a way that recognises the seriousness of it but without making it a drudgery.
Faithroots 