Wearing the Title Pastor

How is it being a pastor?

With the frequency I have been hearing this honest question, perhaps it’s a queue for me to embrace IG for good purposes 🙂 Outside of the Sunday pulpit publicity, there are aspects of administration, leadership and spiritual care. A lot to learn. But how does it feel?

It feels like me. Let me explain.

The gift of retrospection helps one to trace a certain thread through the fabric of life. A few years ago, pastoral work would have been the last thing on my bucket list. In fact, it was truly the last thing. Upon encountering Christ, my life’s ambitions were transformed and others reconfigured.

If there has been something inherent in my life, it has been the synergy of youth, transformational leadership and intellectual curiosity. I find that, contrary to the popular images, pastoral ministry for me brings these three together.

There are probably too many theological books and concepts than I will ever exhaust. Investigating them through a humble curiosity and honesty has helped me to clarify who God is and who I truly am. In essence, they teach me. Of course, the voices and friendships of other people have tapered off the edges.

The gospel itself is the hope of man. The problem with man is that he thinks that he has no problem. The gospel brings wholeness from within and is the basis for any meaningful social or political change.

Young people have been termed volatile, hopeless and confused. Yet there is something that tells me that investing in them is investing in a society, a generation and the world.

The Church has lost its moral, epistemological and missional purpose and authority. Yet even with its blemishes, there’s something about Jesus’ words that tells me the greatest adventure is the participation, proclamation and the propagation of his Kingdom.

Even while I worked for several years in youth leadership, engineering design and power systems, I’ve seen some of the previous skills much more beneficial in my pastoral work. Hopefully, it will serve to preserve and renew the culture and to lead to revitalization, renewal and redemption. By God’s grace. For his glory.