My name is Matt and I am a Lutheran Pastor

My name is Matt and I am a Lutheran Pastor.  If that sounds like the beginning of a 12-step recovery meeting, fine. I'm in a kind of recovery, I think.  I have been a Lutheran Pastor for 11 years now. At a recent meeting, my clerical identity was pinpointed as a stumbling block for church renewal and change.  Now, the person was not attacking me personally as a pastor, but was raising a point of contention.  He suggested that the pastoral office gives a perception that those who wear a black shirt and collar are spiritually aloof, haughty, distinctly above the laity. He claimed that Pastors are part of the problem, because we are not one of the people. We don't have to work in the world like everyone else. We are sheltered by church life.  By title and uniform, we "outrank" our parishioners, giving us more power or votes when it comes to decisions. We are set apart by virtue of a seminary degree and a special wardrobe. Anti-clericalism is as American as apple pie, so I'm not shocked that it was tossed on the table as a source of the problems we face as a church.  I'm just not convinced its the real problem.  It may be symptomatic of the bigger problem, redefining what it means for us to be Church in the 21st century. I think we are in recovery as a church. Our habits and behaviors must change in order that we might flourish again. Recovery is hard work, accomplished by the grace of God and a surrender of the self.  So, I am a recovering Lutheran Pastor, whose life is being re-formed somehow.

So, I'm up for a real discussion about the role and function of called leaders in the church.  A lot of dysfunction and bad behavior among clergy types has contributed to a loss of respect and a damaged reputation.  I don't wear a clerical shirt often, because it symbolizes"priest".  A lot of lapsed Catholics and most protestants/evangelicals reject the priesthood as a tainted class of hypocrites. As many people reject the office as respect it today.  Many people have no experience with priests or pastors, so they don't know what to make of someone so "religious".
Church used to define the role of pastor, but I think that's changing.  What a pastor is and does seems to be in flux these days. What are the proper credentials of a pastor?  Educational? Spiritual?  Communal?  Self-proclamation?  More and more, I think the world outside of the church is defining the role of pastor and priest. The result is this:  church people desire a pastor to be a certain kind of person; the one who prays, who preaches, who leads worship, who "shepherds the flock" by providing religious service to the people in his or her care. This therapeutic ministry is good and necessary. But it avoids contact with outsiders, non-church people, the unclean.  I can spend all day with church people or in my little church office.  (Like I am right now).  So much of what I do has been defined internally.  We don't think about what the world needs a pastor to be.  I do, however, contend that the world needs pastoral direction/care/ help/ guidance.  We look for leadership and direction all the time. Self-help gurus are a dime-a-dozen and a lot of pastors have made themselves in their image---providing client-focused therapy from the church auditorium stage or the best-seller.
But the secular world needs a different kind of "pastor".  Someone who is more prophetic---helping people to make meaning of their lives vis a vis God and other people; someone who is more creative---bringing people together for purposes that transcend their individual consumer lives, and which creates something hopeful and beautiful in the midst of a broken world.  Someone who confronts injustice, falsehood, and the malignancy/dis-ease that festers in human society.  Pastors must be able to see and name the healing and redemptive work of God as it takes place in local communities and far off places. Pastors must bear good news and the story of redemption and reconciliation that we call "gospel".  Pastors must address causes of suffering and work with those who seek to alleviate it.  Pastors must exemplify forgiveness and reconciliation by acknowledging their own sin and embracing the grace of God that claims us all. Pastors must not be about the work of institutional maintenance. Pastors must help people to see and know the God at the center of life, who is fulfilling the promise to restore, bring justice, heal, and redeem all things. Pastors need to be taught. We need a director, a guide, a teacher.  We need Jesus.         

Jesus is teaching me what it means to be a full-time called Pastor in Akron, Lancaster County, PA, USA, 2012.  It's not what I thought it would be.  When I first heard the call, I thought I would be preaching, teaching, leading weekly worship, visiting the sick, burying and marrying people. I was taught how to be a good listener, how to read the bible, preach a sermon, preside over liturgical worship, preside over occasional services. (I have a book for that).  But this is what I do now;  I am more like a community developer, a spiritual entrepreneur interested in helping people discover the mystery of the incarnate God named Jesus.  I have found a project, a mission.  Identify the poverty and the gifts in people.  Lift them up.   Encourage them to share. Give them hope, connect them to a family that seeks their welfare and their peace. Point them into the mystery of God's abiding presence.  Teach them to pray, to listen for God's voice, to find their own voice in this world.
I am grateful that God called me here. I have been able to practice some things here that I could not have practiced in a large, secure, content congregation. I can experiment in the redefining of the work of the pastor.  Some days, its worship and preaching and visiting elderly parishioners. Most days its like finding one's way in the dark, though. A lot of uncertainty about what I must do today to contribute, to make a difference, to be part of God's life.  I'm not always sure what productivity looks like, either.  Its tough to measure and quantify  "professional success" as a pastor. It looks, I guess, like losing, like serving, like dying, like the cross. Congregations need pastors who will show the what God is up to beyond the four walls of the church building and who will go there ahead of them.  Pastors need congregations that are not afraid to go there with them.