Unnecessary pastor

Real Life Church is hosting our annual outdoor service and free picnic this Sunday at Clear Lake Park at 10:00 a.m. A lot of work goes into a service like this. Sound equipment must be rented, picked up and installed, then taken down and returned. Grills have to be transported. Signs are displayed. Greeters, cooks, musicians and game leaders must be recruited and managed. I’m grateful to be surrounded by volunteers who not only make all this happen, but have fun doing it.

 

The church is intended to be a team. None of us are indispensable. “There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12)

 

I remember discovering how dispensable I am about 20 years ago. I woke up on a Sunday at 4 o’clock in the morning with a slight pain in my abdomen. I tried to get comfortable again, but the pain got worse. A few minutes later I was waking up my wife to take me to the emergency room.

 

Every bump on the drive to the hospital was agony. In the ER I was surrounded by medical technicians who taped various pieces of metal and plastic all over my chest and abdomen. In short order I had a bird’s nest of electrical wires hooked to my chest and an IV in my arm. But a shot of morphine made it all seem kind of pleasant.

 

A few hours later I was told that I had pancreatitis, a painful inflammation of the pancreas. On admission to a hospital room, an intake nurse took down my personal information. When she asked me my occupation, I said, “I’m a pastor.” She looked at me oddly. I said, “Really, I’m a pastor. I should be preaching right now.” She continued her checklist.

 

“Do you practice any sort of faith?” (Duh.)

 

“Would you like to have a visit from our chaplain?” (Is he lonely?)

 

In the hospital I was treated with respect and courtesy, but I was anonymous – just another sick person. Meanwhile back in church things were going on fine without me. Our youth minister read my sermon to the congregation and some said that he did a better job than I would have.

 

At the time, I was reading a book by the late Eugene Peterson, The Unnecessary Pastor. That was how I felt – unnecessary. Everything on my schedule was suddenly dropped, and the world kept right on spinning.

 

Unnecessary is not a bad word according to Peterson. It doesn’t mean worthless. Diamonds are unnecessary but very valuable. Likewise, a pastor’s work is valuable and important, but ultimately unnecessary. Being “unnecessary” is simply remembering the good news that there is a Savior. And I’m not Him.

 

This runs counter to our egos. Pastors are like anybody else; we like to be necessary. The needs and wants of a congregation make us feel necessary. The more we meet the desires, the more necessary we become. Today a pastor is expected to study and preach, manage and lead, visit and console, counsel and pray – the list is almost endless. Our egos not only allow this, but encourage it.

 

Peterson describes this “busy-ness” as a disguised form of laziness. By running about meeting other people’s needs, we avoid the unique responsibilities of a pastor. In his book, The Contemplative Pastor, Peterson wrote these embarrassingly accurate words: “I am busy because I am lazy.  I indolently let others decide what I will do instead of resolutely deciding myself.  I let people who do not understand the work of a pastor write the agenda for my day’s work because I am too slipshod to write it myself… If I vainly crowd my day with conspicuous activity or let others fill my day with imperious demands, I don’t have the time to do my proper work, the work to which I have been called.  How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion?” (pp. 28-29)

I stayed two days in the hospital. No cause for the attack was ever determined. When I returned to work at church, our Vacation Bible School ministry was underway. My only pastoral duty was to mingle through the crowd of parents and children.

 

I like being unnecessary. I’m blessed to be part of a team of servants who free me to study and write and preach. Most other things can and should be accomplished by others according to their God-given abilities. Then the church becomes the true “Body of Christ” she is intended to be.

 

This Sunday, I will do my part. Then I hope enjoy the food and activities. I would enjoy seeing you out there. Let’s mingle.