Every now and then I actually agree with iMonk Michael Spencer. Today he put an excellent post on his blog entitled, A Second Look at the Ordinary Pastor in which he has responded to a letter a woman wrote to him with complaints about her pastor. The woman had recently moved and naturally was attending a new church. Her complaints? 1)The pastor's sermons were longer than her old pastor's sermons, making it difficult for her kids to pay attention. 2) He stands behind a pulpit and she would prefer he move around in order to hold her children’s attention. 3) He preaches too often from Paul's Epistles. 4) Her old pastor is almost 30 years younger than her new one, and who is less concerned with the opinions of the younger families than he is the health of the whole church.
iMonk then goes on to explain why he feels the woman needs to cut her new pastor a break.
As someone whose husband was in youth ministry for-evah, I can really appreciate what iMonk has to say about many churches' tendencies to want hip, cool pastors. But the best part of iMonk's admonition is quoted below. He makes some pretty painful observations about what we want in our pastors:
I believe the “ordinary,” traditional pastor is an undervalued man these days. We’ve come to a time when we need to honestly admit some things. Buckle up:
1) We like our pastors young. There’s a lot of age prejudice in the pews right now.
2) We’re very influenced by the entertainment culture in which we live. Our favorite pastors are media savvy, work the stage like comedians, and know all the current pop culture buzzwords.
3) What our children like has become the ultimate measurement of most things in church. As important as children are, I can’t help but be afraid that this isn’t a good measurement of most things. Children shouldn’t be our instructors and judges.
4) The skills of a man like your pastor aren’t particularly “sexy.” He won’t draw attention to himself. He will go to the hospitals, visit the elderly, be there in emergencies and trouble. This is what he was taught matters in pastoral ministry. Is he wrong? I know this kind of life won’t be as noticeable or make as good a story as riding a motorcycle or rock climbing, but he is a pastor and knows it.
5) Your pastor preaches in a way that draws attention to the word of God, not to his own personality. Would it be wrong of me to say that Alan often drew much attention to his “points” and “principles,” but not as much to the Bible. Your man wants you to have a Bible open in front of you rather than looking to a screen to “feed” you the verses. This will be more demanding, yes. But what is best for you and yours?
I can see how, over the years, the Lord has changed my crazy youth guy into a solid pastorly pastor. This is a good thing! I do understand what it's like to be frustrated with one's pastor but what I really like about iMonk's post is his admonition to the woman to be less critical, because I think we all need to be this way not only toward our pastors but toward our spouses, kids, co-workers, neighbors.
So, while I may not always agree with my brother iMonk, I think he really really hit a home-run on this post. Go check it out!
I agree with a lot of this post.
ReplyDeleteI think too often, in an attempt to "grow churches" pastors and elders work to make the church attractive to youth and young families.
While those demographics are important, older believers are increasingly ignored in todays churches.
There is a wealth of wisdom in older, mature believers, and too often they are ignored in modern churches.
Like Mx5 said, the best point made in this blog was that we need to be less critical of our pastors. We don't want cookie-cutter pastors. Each pastor has a gift and a vision that God has given him. He needs to minister by using those gifts.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, although those points were good for that particular pastor, I'd hardly put a blanket statement on "the modern church" "the church of this day" "most churches now." For example, because a church chooses powerpoint doesn't mean they want to entertain children or the young. Analyze each individual church for where they are and why they are doing what they are doing. Don't lump them all together and feel you've gotten the key to why churches are failing. The same goes for Pastors!