Surving and Thriving in an Alien Environment

{ "type": "doc", "content": [ { "type": "heading", "attrs": { "level": 1 }, "content": [ { "text": "Pastoring has been described in various ways by various people.", "type": "text" } ] }, { "type": "paragraph", "content": [ { "text": "For purposes here, I’d like to use a rather novel description to describe the vocation: deep sea scuba diving. Working under water, of course, does not come naturally for us homo sapiens. We’re land creatures: it’s on land where we’re oxygenated and it’s on land where we survive and thrive. In order to successfully work under water, homo sapiens who opt to dive must acquire and maintain equipment and develop strategies for its usage to survive and thrive. We do this for obvious reasons: the underwater environment is alien to us. The same is very true of pastors.", "type": "text" } ] }, { "type": "paragraph", "content": [ { "text": "Ministers must survive in this culture before they/we can forge gains in this culture. How might we do that? Relative to survival strategies, certain staples have long been held out as basic necessities for believers: maintaining a prayer life; keeping a commitment to a group of local believers—fellowship; and spending personal time in/with Scripture. For ministers, unfortunately, these staples all-too-easily become institutionalized and less meaningful. Let me explain.", "type": "text" } ] }, { "type": "blockquote", "content": [ { "type": "paragraph", "content": [ { "text": "For pastors, prayer can too easily and often become simply attending to public prayers; Bible study too easily and too often can be prepping for giving a public message; fellowship can too easily mean publicly presenting to and attending to the group we superintend on the weekend. What’s problematic with the above, of course, is that the activities are all professional and not personal. Much as one can’t simply take a deep breath and hope to accomplish something long-term under water, one cannot hope to survive in a culture, in the long term, if their internal systems are not personally and perpetually oxygenated.", "type": "text" } ] } ] }, { "type": "paragraph", "content": [ { "text": "Ministers cannot neglect their own souls and hope to make a real impact on others’ souls. Ministers do well to engage in real and personal prayers. We do well to get in touch with our own souls and take our concerns to our Maker. Pastors do well to carve out space to read Scripture for personal reasons, and not just professional ones. My wife and I begin the day by studying Scripture for about half an hour and praying together. I believe that, at the core, all teachers must be perpetual learners. (I’m currently a PhD student at Cambridge University [England] and will graduate in a year and a half when I am 72 years old. The oldest person to graduate from Cambridge with a PhD was a woman who finished when she was 93.) We’re never too old to learn and we’re never too busy to take time to do it.", "type": "text" } ] }, { "type": "paragraph", "content": [ { "text": "Lastly, and please pay attention to this (and avoid the temptation to reject it outright), I believe pastors do well if we understand that our church isn’t really our local church. Though I personally lead a congregation with people that I deeply love (among other things), in many respects I do not see my local congregation as the community that I belong to. I’ve long observed that many beautiful people have come and gone in communities I’ve pastored… I’ve never liked it but I have come to accept it. My associations with Grace International, by contrast, have been with me for decades—and those relationships have been steady and stable as a rock. I’ve weathered underwater storms and upheavals (which I’d just barely survived) with ever-faithful friends and co-laborers at Grace. All things considered, I am what I am because of that faith-based community of leaders, and, with it, I am able to carry on and forge ahead in my life and ministry. Together, with others, I’ve been able to survive in this alien environment.", "type": "text" } ] } ] }