sides
I said I wasn’t ready here to unpack all the messy-ness. This response shouldn’t be taken as exhaustive either and I reserve the right to be wrong AND change my mind. Just call me a woman! (Let the comments fly with that one….)
Let it be know first and foremost that I wouldn’t want any other job than that of a pastor. I love it - “crap” and all. I have an opportunity to engage with people about something that is eternal. There aren’t to many other professions that get to claim that. I’m entrusted with the care of the most precious commodity in the universe - a human soul.
Having said that - there is a lot of junk that goes with the job. But is it any different than any other profession that deals with people in close, long term, relationships - like counselors, social workers, teachers, and family physicians?
Low pay? Now I don’t consider myself low-paid. Grace may have her issues but paying pastors isn’t one of them. Unfortunately, I’m the exception not the rule. A lot of my peers are not so fortunate. I know of guys who are in major credit card debt because of their salary. But is that really any different than a teacher in an inner city school? Or a Social Worker? I don’t think so. So that isn’t it.
Lack of encouragment/lack of ‘results’? Again - pastoring can get lonely. Some of that is self-imposed but we live in such a lack of encouragment culture anyway, the religious subculture is worse. To imagine that the pimple-faced kid who can’t look anyone in the eye could one day be the reason thousands know Jesus is hard - no, impossible - when he (or she) has just spilled the 4th Dr. Pepper on your white carpet. Years could go by without affirmation that what you do is working and the parable of the 10 healed but 1 returning makes perfect sense now.
But again, I don’t think that’s unique to pastoring. What about the social worker that deals with the same abusive, alcoholic family and she gets is grief? Or she removes a kid from a home and the fallout of that?
I do think there are a couple of dynamics that make pastoring unique but I’m not sure they are applicapable anywhere but here in the US. I’ve got a WHOLE lot more coming, but got anything you wanna add at this point?
7 responses so far ↓
1 AK // Jun 23, 2006 at 10:52 am
As a Dad of 4 boys who moved to a new town and were looking for a place for them to grow in Christ, I just want to say a big THANKS! to you.
I am forever grateful for what you have done in all our lives!
2 Catbird // Jun 23, 2006 at 12:05 pm
I only want to add that “applicable” doesn’t have a “p” in it. (wicked grin.)
3 Mike R // Jun 23, 2006 at 1:11 pm
My thoughts on this:
God’s Grand Story
p.s. how do you do that “ping back” stuff?
4 Mike R // Jun 23, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Oops, messed up my link.
God’s Grand Story
5 kris // Jun 23, 2006 at 2:50 pm
one unique aspect to pastoring is having an enemy who would like nothing more than to wreck you — or wreck anything you try to do ….
6 Mike S // Jun 24, 2006 at 9:52 pm
One thing about pastoring - you alluded to it and you may cover it later - is the weight of the eternal significance that comes with pastoring v. other professions.
7 Jason Lofton // Jun 27, 2006 at 3:37 pm
I was thinking this morning about what a privilage it is a physician to have the job I have. I get to meet people at rock bottom often and get paid to help people in need. There are a lot of similarities to pastoring and doctoring, with the salary being one big difference.
*I have to put up with lots of “crap” - literally and figuratively
*We don’t get a lot of thanks for what we do- at least in the family medicine side of things
*We have the privilage of meeting people where the rubber meets the road. How many jobs do people divulge things to you that they don’t even tell their spouses-probably only in court other than in a pastor or doctor’s office.
I say all this to say “I know how you feel”. I look at myself as a minister dressed in a white coat and get paid very well (at least someday) to do it. Ever think about going to medical school?
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