Too Many Lauries and Too Few Pastors (HT: Andree Seu)
My post from yesterday about The Peacemaking Pastor being offered on Amazon for only $6.40 (!!) reminded me of an article I read by Andree Seu in last month’s World Magazine:
Message from Morocco: Relationship-Building is the Task Overarching the To-Do List
In it, she talks about receiving a call from a woman who is concerned about another woman who has three kids under six and is pregnant and is “exhibiting behavior reminiscent of the woman who drove her children into a lake some years ago.”
The caller asked Andree for the pastor’s phone number because, well, “Evidently the pastor must be called into this because, well, everybody else is busy (with church programs presumably).”
She then goes on to make what I think is a spot-on analysis of Body life, church leadership, one-anothering, living the gospel (call it what you will):
“I have a high regard for pastors but I don’t think this is going to work, mathmatically speaking. Too many Lauries, too few pastors.”
It’s SO true!
Even following a church model wherein all of the ordained church leaders (in our Presbyterian church we call them elders and deacons, but insert whatever term your polity uses) are PAID (full-time) staff members, the math just can’t work. A small band of church leaders simply can’t be aware of and carefully, thoughtfully, prayerfully minister to the needs of the ENTIRE Body ALL the time.
How much more so when our church leaders are NOT paid, full-time staff whose ONLY job it is to watch out over their flock? (This is the case in our church and in most churches.) Yes, we have two teaching elders and one ruling elder who are paid staff. The rest of our elders and deacons work FULL-TIME in other jobs that earn money to provide for their families. Oh, yes, these leaders have FAMILIES too. So they work hard to keep bread on the table AND serve and lead their wives and children AND their extended family members AND their neighbors and our community WHILE keeping watch over us, their sheep. (Some of us—let’s say her name rhymes with “LARA”—being more high maintenance sheep than others.)
They pray for us daily. Weekly. Monthly. All the time.
They stay late after church services — just in case there is a need. They don’t watch the clock. They listen and pray and comfort and help.
They come to our homes. They pray over our children and help us to discipline and encourage them.
They meet us out for, let’s call it a meal, but really? It’s a “Please help! Our marriage is in trouble!” meeting.
They leave their families and workplaces to spend hours in session and diaconate meetings — scheduled and emergency unscheduled.
They wait with us in the hospital and visit us on our deathbed. They help our families to grieve and our church family to grieve corporately — all while they themselves are grieving too.
Yes, imperfectly. Of course.
But faithfully. Intentionally. Keenly aware of their duties as shepherds of the sheep.
Oh, how we are called to honor, pray for, love, and encourage them! To listen to their counsel. To not think of them as Spiritual-ATM’s (only there to dispense things TO us), but to remember that they are human. Children of God themselves.
AND? We are called to GROW UP, GET INVOLVED, and HELP THEM. To set aside baby milk and dig into the meat of real Christian living — disciplines of grace, private and corporate worship and prayer, and yes, SERVICE.
The math is clear — there are just “too many Lauries and too few pastors.” We are the Body. We must BE the Body. Ministered-TO and ministering-OUT. Imperfectly, but with great confidence and great HOPE because we have the Holy Spirit, the Word, the Word Made Flesh, the Bride, the Preaching of the Word, the Sacraments — all because our Heavenly, Triune Father is such a good and sovereign God. Transcendent and yet immanent. Above all, over all — and yet with us.
As we trust in His love, we CAN learn how to love one another. We can grow in our ability to minister to one another in the “daily” challenges of life in a fallen world so that, yes, of course, when there are times that REQUIRE special attention (2AM calls to the pastor, assistance from other professionals, even—sadly, but sometimes necessarily—the wise wielding of civil authorities per Romans 13), we haven’t exhausted our shepherds with every teeny tiny need along the way.
How do we grow? How are we equipped to serve?
– Regular attendance at and active participation in weekly corporate church services where the Word is preached by our ordained leaders, we worship and pray corporately, and we joyfully receive God’s sacraments
– Mentoring. Spiritual mothering. Men’s triads. Discipleship. Accountability.
– Bible study. Book study. Group discussions. “Friend Groups.”
– Peacemaking Teams (or really ANY resources from Peacemaker Ministries). How People Change (or really ANY resources from The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation).
I could go on and on (you know I could! ol’ verbal Tara is only ramping up on this topic, eh? 😉 ) …
But instead, let me just close by saying this: We are the Body. The Body of Christ.
Oh, that we would all grow up into Him Who is our Head!
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Ephesians 4:11-16 (emphasis added)
Blessings on your day, dear friends —
Sending my love,
Tara B.