An Interesting Truth
Life in a small SBC congregation can be head-scratching at times.
Are there any other pastors who have “head-scratcher” moments in their tenure? I mean, you’re like - “What on earth was that?”.
So I entitled this “An Interesting Truth” because this head-scratcher has happened multiple times to me and I just have to say “What on earth was that?”.
So here is my head-scratcher:
We have members in our church who get upset with me if I do not visit them enough but do not care if our deacons do not check on them. Deacons who have served a lot longer than I have been the pastor and have been friends with these church members longer than I have been the pastor but do not get upset at these deacons if they do not visit with them.
So when I ask them “Well, do you get mad at our deacons or other church members for not visiting with you?” I get two responses - a wide-eyed deer in the headlights look accompanied with this response:
“You’re the pastor, that is what we pay you for.”
I’m not upset about this, I just don’t understand this.1
So if this were a movie here is the twist at the end:
When I go to the nursing home to visit our church members the recurring questions I always get are: “Where are our church members? Where are our deacons?” They tell me that they are glad that I come and see them but they want the people that they have gone to church with their whole life to show up for a visit.
So when I go back and inform our church of this issue this is the response that I get:
“You’re the pastor, that is what we pay you for.”
So to recap: church members who are not in a nursing home get upset with me and not their long-time deacon/friends for not visiting enough but church members in the nursing home get upset that they’re not visited by their long-time deacons/friends.
Can someone please make this make sense to me?
Because it leaves me saying “What on earth was that?”.
Is the pastorate a job or a calling? There is an interesting conversation that will surely turn into an argument very quickly.
I have been in pastoral ministry for just over 40 years and I have to say “you nailed it.” At some point we lost the concept of Eph. 4:11-12 where the people are the ministers and our work is to equip and train them to minister.
This all makes perfect sense to me but is probably best relayed, if requested, in a private message. Note if requested 1. It is analogous in nature … nature being a bit earthy and 2. if it seems to break down in the end remember we all do (break down in the end) and “you requested it”. It’s simply an examined life’s colloquial cacophony … that is my life’s experience bourne of a search that’s been 65 years in the making and is still baking. ☕️⚖️✝️🕊️