Pastors as "the spiritual equivalents of concierges"
Congregations Gone Wild The trend toward consumer-driven religion has been gaining momentum for half a century. … Americans now sample, dabble and move on when a religious leader fails to satisfy for any reason. In this transformation, clergy have seen their job descriptions rewritten.
Interestingly this piece is found in the NYT and is expressed by someone who certainly is not a fundamentalist and on the lighter side of Evangelicalism but he he takes seriously the role of the Pastor in stating:
The issue obviously has to do with the varying views in each sect regarding the role of Pastor/Minister and just how they are to go about providing spiritual nourishment for their congregation as well as integrating this primary duty with any additional duties they may assert are his. And I don’t know how many times I have heard a fundie or CE state, when discussing the matter, an unreasonable and unsustainable laundry list of expectations for a Pastor.
I am quite amazed at the very bad views that exist within CE and fundie circles as to what a Pastor’s primary duties are and any additional responsibilities they may have and the ill-constructed arguments developed to demand they meet such expectations. One need only get in a discussion at a CE or fundie message board about the role of the Pastor and how it is he is to accomplish his divinely instituted role to discover that there exists within CE and fundie circles some very bad ideas that no doubt result in the same damage to Pastors as described in the article.
Fortunately this is not the only condition found in CE and fundie churches and there is a sizable group that have taken the time to properly develop a well articulated understanding of the function of a Pastor and endeavor to combat the intrusion of erring expectations by members, leaders or publications which tempt people to re-categorize the role of a Pastor.
The pastoral vocation is to help people grow spirituallyBut how a Pastor accomplishes this is hotly debated and disputed and ultimately, without a clear understanding of how this is done leads to all kinds of misalignment, misjudgments, demands, and so on by congregational members, leadership and Ministers. But never minding the discussion outside of CE’s and within that circle into fundamentalist, the very same thing can be said of fundie and CE’s. So it isn’t an issue of orthodoxy with respect to essential doctrines that leads to this because again, both ends of the Christian spectrum experience this.
The issue obviously has to do with the varying views in each sect regarding the role of Pastor/Minister and just how they are to go about providing spiritual nourishment for their congregation as well as integrating this primary duty with any additional duties they may assert are his. And I don’t know how many times I have heard a fundie or CE state, when discussing the matter, an unreasonable and unsustainable laundry list of expectations for a Pastor.
I am quite amazed at the very bad views that exist within CE and fundie circles as to what a Pastor’s primary duties are and any additional responsibilities they may have and the ill-constructed arguments developed to demand they meet such expectations. One need only get in a discussion at a CE or fundie message board about the role of the Pastor and how it is he is to accomplish his divinely instituted role to discover that there exists within CE and fundie circles some very bad ideas that no doubt result in the same damage to Pastors as described in the article.
Fortunately this is not the only condition found in CE and fundie churches and there is a sizable group that have taken the time to properly develop a well articulated understanding of the function of a Pastor and endeavor to combat the intrusion of erring expectations by members, leaders or publications which tempt people to re-categorize the role of a Pastor.
This was a good piece and I appreciated seeing it here. The NY Times does a better job covering religion than it used to, but this op-ed was still buried in the Saturday edition (lowest circulation day).
When I read what Jim Peet wrote about job descriptions being rewritten, I immediately thought of the pastor as ringmaster. In many larger and especially megachurches I’ve visited, the senior pastor acts as a master of ceremonies, introducing the various pastors who come up either to lead worship, make the appeal before the offering is collected, lead a prayer, etc. Many times a church service can resemble a variety show. A couple “blended worship” songs for us older folks, an edgier song by the youth accompanied by a “human video” (what used to be called simply a skit) and rounded out oftentimes by the kind of 10-15 minute lighthearted chat that the op-ed’s author described as being what people demand today. It’s no wonder people come and people go from churches: where’s the beef, the substance? And maybe that’s not a bad thing, Christians being more discriminating “consumers,” not staying at a church that decides to reinvent itself by adopting a Willow Creek model, then the Saddleback model, then incorporating elements of the emerging church. There will always be church-hoppers, but there are also those who are sincerely seeking a solid church. I know many of the members of IFB churches in my area were not raised IFB, but found it as a refuge from the fad-chasing megachurches.
When I read what Jim Peet wrote about job descriptions being rewritten, I immediately thought of the pastor as ringmaster. In many larger and especially megachurches I’ve visited, the senior pastor acts as a master of ceremonies, introducing the various pastors who come up either to lead worship, make the appeal before the offering is collected, lead a prayer, etc. Many times a church service can resemble a variety show. A couple “blended worship” songs for us older folks, an edgier song by the youth accompanied by a “human video” (what used to be called simply a skit) and rounded out oftentimes by the kind of 10-15 minute lighthearted chat that the op-ed’s author described as being what people demand today. It’s no wonder people come and people go from churches: where’s the beef, the substance? And maybe that’s not a bad thing, Christians being more discriminating “consumers,” not staying at a church that decides to reinvent itself by adopting a Willow Creek model, then the Saddleback model, then incorporating elements of the emerging church. There will always be church-hoppers, but there are also those who are sincerely seeking a solid church. I know many of the members of IFB churches in my area were not raised IFB, but found it as a refuge from the fad-chasing megachurches.
Discussion