The Burden of the Church (2 of 4)
After hearing the pastor at the conference admit that he didn’t love pastoring and dreamed about doing something else, I decided to investigate. Just about every time I got to spend one-on-one time with a pastor I really respect I asked them, “Do you enjoy what you do? Is this like … fun … for you?”
I’ve asked about ten pastors that question. One said, “Yeah! Absolutely! This is the greatest!” The other nine said, “No, not so much.” One confided, “I think God made me a pastor to make sure that I go to church. I wonder if I wasn’t a pastor if I’d go at all.” I totally understood what he was saying.
It’s not that any of these guys are complaining or throwing a pity party. Each is just admitting, “This is really tough. So often the work of the church is a real burden.” And I agree.
So why do I do it? I’ll tell you tomorrow
I guess this stuff confuses me. If you know your called, and you know God’s burden is and has become your burden. Does not that burden then become the Joy of working alongside Him in the greatest EPIC story ever told? When the exploits of Vince Antonucci are blasted to the 4 corners of the earth when God declares your story to the world; think about how awesome that day will be! Not that this is the point of carrying this burden, but the annals of Eternal History are being written everyday and line by line our deeds and legacy are being documented for future declaration!
This place is temporary – burden; drudgery; pain; suffering; doubt; loss; etc…, are all part of this wicked place. But the burdened few, are the only light that I feel reside in this dark and wicked world. It sucks trying to remain bright all the time; but…., it’s fun too don’t ya think?
Anyway.., I understand it is not easy; I get that, but what real satisfying/rewarding job really is? You could probably name those jobs on one hand. Most callings/ jobs have certain aspects that are awesome and many aspects of them are just pure drudgery no? For instance, gameday as an NFL player must be awesome; however, the off season, injury recovery, wondering if you’ll make the cut next year, etc…, cannot be a whole lot of fun.
I dunno, maybe I’m looking at it from the jaded glasses of inexperience, but we work for the Greatest Coach in the Universe. He lets us run free and make whacky crazy choices and decisions, and guides us through when we screw it up. So.., I guess.., I’ll have to wait for your next 2 entries to get a clue? 🙂
“No, not so much.”
I wonder, if the people in our churches, knew that was the way we felt, what would they think? What would they do? I hate to think about it. They would most likely find another guy who will lie to them and say “yeah, this is great,” and throw us (most of us at least) to the curb.
As for me: no, not so much.