If I am honest, I could list off a couple of people that I know that seem to be in ministry, not in response to any calling that they sensed Jesus make on their life, or out of any sense of love for him. Gratefully only a couple. But this article from Baptist Press shocked me a bit. Again, not that people with atheistic beliefs are in some of those postions, but rather the lengths to which some will go to remain in them.
Ministry is hard. The hours, the strain of so many broken people around you and you add to that your own brokenness. I know that personally I have, at times, made the success of [nlcf] more about me than about the Kingdom of God. At times I have not trusted in Jesus like I would want to; have taken things into my own hands. So, it isn’t that I don’t get how you can allow the strains of ministry life to take you down paths you didn’t intend to go.
The difference is that when we realize we are heading down them; we need to have the reflected discipline to stop, consider why things are going as they are, and then let others around us know what has happened. In my 14 years of ministry experience, the best advice I could offer anyone walking through a ministry life is to simply walk closely and openly with Jesus, walk closely and openly with those around you and never be unwilling to be honest with where your life actually is.
No clergy on a pedestal thinking ever brings a more honest relationship with Christ. In the beattitudes, Jesus let the disciples in on a little truth. The truth was that the way we see the world work isn’t the whole story.
We honor wealth over poverty. Jesus never said wealth was intrinsically wrong, he just warned against the unexpected problems it can bring with it.
We honor vengence over peace. Jesus told his disciples that he wanted them to have the types of hearts that would respond to evil, not with more of the same, but with love.
Jesus was showing the disciples, and us through them, that our worldview isn’t completely wrong, just painfully small. That there is an expanded view of life and our place in it that includes an active and loving God who is calling us, not to sit quietly and allow our world to set our frame of reference, but to follow Jesus and allow him to set it. There is so much beyond the experience of this life and what we can experience with our physical senses. In that fuller experience, Jesus’ odd challenges, make perfect sense.
I wonder what those that are “play acting” would say about what they have been up to when they see that what they were faking was real was actually true, and what they were honestly believing was actually false?
“Like an accomplished novelist, Jim Pace holds your attention, like a thoughtful pastor he deals with reality compassionately, and like a wise guide he helps us to live more honestly. If you have ever wrestled with the problem of evil, this is a must read!”
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Atheist Pastors | The Church of Jesus Christ said...
1[...] Jim Pace has a response as well. [...]
05/3/10 9:57 AM | Comment Link