Open Call for Pastoral Reform

I will preface this message with the note that I have not pre-meditated this post. I mean, I have thought about the various ideas I’m going to express, but I haven’t written it all down before. This is very much a first draft. I’m thinking the point of a blog is to be able to just say stuff sort of candidly- so here goes. There’s always that little comment link at the bottom if you’ve got something to say to the contrary.

Pastors,

I like you guys, I really do. But here’s the thing– what you’re doing is wrong. I’m not saying all pastors, but hear me out before you decide that this doesn’t apply to you. The traditional church is starting the feel the long brewing backlash from members who have been previously too afraid to question the churches authority. Every week I see more and more people leaving traditional churches and talking about how screwed up things are. In your defense, it’s really not your fault. You’re just doing what you were taught. Unfortunately, things have been messed up for way too long for you to have learned any differently. I’ll make things simple and give you a few points to start with.

1) Get a job.
Paul worked as a tentmaker, and still managed to plant several churches, make lots of disciples, and write the better part of the New Testament. Trust me on this one- you do not need to get paid to ‘seek God’ all week. What you need to do is go out and get a job so you can provide for your family and stop living off your congregation. I’m not saying you should resign your position as pastor, but I am daring to say that you can have a job and still be a pastor. I think the moment that ‘serving the Lord’ became a career choice is the moment that things started to go wrong with the traditional church today.

2) Stop Preaching at the people and Talk with them.
Instead of playing holier than thou from up at the pulpit, try this: Get everyone into a circle and actually talk with them. Invite questions. They will come to realize that you don’t know it all, and that’s ok. Give them enough time and they will even realize that you aren’t sinless, and that’s ok too. It’s good that people understand those things. If you want to be a motivational speaker- that’s fine. Just don’t call yourself a pastor. The meaning of the Greek word we translate as pastor is shepherd. A shepherd practically lived with his sheep. Instead, you see them for a coupe of hours a week. And in those couple of hours, none of them can say more than 10 words to you.

3) Make disciples
Somewhere along the line, you were tricked into thinking that conducting an alter call at the end of every service is the same as, or maybe even more important, than making disciples.

I don’t think many of you would dispute the fact that huge numbers of new converts (maybe most) end up leaving the church and ‘falling away’. But this is a numbers game, isnt it? As long as the church is still growing, it doesn’t really matter that some are falling away. After all, you know you’re doing a good job because, hey, you had 20 new visitors last week. It doesn’t matter that 10 of the members from last week didn’t show up. Stop this kind of thinking please.

4) Renounce your denomination
I haven’t quite figured this one out yet, but here’s what I’m thinking. If just a few of the major denominations were able to get past their petty differences and merge… yes, I said merge… like join together to become one body in, dare I say it, UNITY… Can you imagine what God could do with that? The church system we have in America today is disgraceful. We are so divided about so many stupid things it has to make God sick. I would venture to say that we could disagree on just about everything save for Christ, and still be part of the same body. And we’d be a much stronger and healthier body than we have today.

So there’s four things for you to start with. Although I’m guessing most of you read the first one and decided I was a lunatic. What I’m saying would effectively destroy everything you’ve built to this point. The question is, would that be a bad thing? Maybe it’s time to let God make the plans… what do you think?