What a pastor does.

A friend from seminary who is currently serving a congregation in North Dakota recently wrote a great post about what a pastor does. I'm still an intern, but from what I can tell his description of life for a solo pastor is spot on (he should know, he does it every day, right?). But I still encounter a lot of people who not only don't know that pastors do more than preach, but don't understand the function of a pastor in this day and age. We're seemingly irrelevant to a large section of the population. I mean, for somebody who doesn't go to church, a pastor is basically useless, right? Not quite. I think that at our best we truly have a vital role to play in modern society.

To start, let me sum up what pastors do within the church, in case you don't want to read Nathan's post. Basically, they do everything. They preside at worship, the most obvious thing, but that involves more than just standing up for an hour or two on Sundays: it involves worship planning with the musicians, researching and writing a sermon (can take 10-20 hours from start to finish depending on the preacher), and a bunch of other little detail work. That's a lot already, but they also teach Bible studies, confirmation, Sunday school, book groups, new member classes, etc etc. Some larger congregations might have staff or volunteers to do some of this, but even still there is a fair bit of education going on that the pastor is involved with. They also do visitation with shut-ins and the sick; they do pastoral care and counseling, and are available for emergencies such as sudden illness, accidents, death, domestic abuse crises, rape, etc. They attend council meetings and deal with administration tasks, which pretty much nobody likes. And there are funerals and weddings (which take up a whole weekend for a pretty small payout--and usually include several pre-marriage meetings). Suffice it to say, pastors keep pretty busy at church.

But all of that more or less seems like it is just keeping the church itself going. Why should somebody who isn't a Christian care about that? Well, for one, the church cares about justice issues. Although it is sometimes a slow starter, the church at its best can sometimes be just the force of social change that tips the balance in these issues. For example, although the Nazi party tried to use the church in order to justify the atrocities being committed, pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (and others) spoke out boldly against the party, calling Christians to see rescuing Jews and resisting the party as part of their Christian discipleship. In more recent years, certain church bodies have been involved heavily in the gay rights/marriage equality movement and their support of GLBT people is a direct result of their Christian belief in Christ as an equalizer. And let's not forget the long, long history of caring for the poor, especially within the Catholic tradition. Are there churches who are not helpful to justice issues? Absolutely. But that makes the churches who are helpful that much more important to counter those messages. Preachers like myself and those I know make it a point to preach that the gospel of Christ is the radical love of Christ--that ALL people are recipients of love and because all people are loved and called children of God, it is part of our mission to seek out injustice and be a voice for the vulnerable.

Furthermore, pastors help motivate people to give. Church people are extremely generous, and while some of that money goes to pay for staff and other expenses, church bodies like Lutheran World Relief, Goodwill, and the Salvation Army donate millions of dollars a year to help with disaster relief, world hunger, disease control (such as providing mosquito nets to fight malaria). The Missouri Synod Lutheran Church was one of the first people on the scene after the Sandy Hook shooting providing service animals to the traumatized victims and their families, and let's not forget the thousands of mission trips that churches fund annually to sponsor hospitals overseas, build houses, and buy livestock for needy families. The congregation I'm serving recently held a campaign for Operation Starfish, hoping to raise enough money to build a house and support a family for a year (about $3500 builds the house, provides rice and beans, clothing, education, and helps fund a startup business so the family can self-sustain). The church ended up raising enough to fund two families and buy several livestock animals to help sustain the family in the future. Religious people love to give, and they give more than non-religious people.

Some people take issue with motives for helping, as if Christians give because they are afraid that the big sky monster in heaven will smite them if they don't, but theologically speaking, this is not true. Christians believe, almost universally, in salvation by grace alone--meaning we are saved by faith, not by the things we do or don't do. While some people might operate out of a fear of hell, that's really a minority and represents a misunderstanding of Christian teaching. The job of the pastor is to teach discipleship and mobilize congregations by declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ which is for everybody, and by declaring that gospel which is for the world, it puts us all on the same field. We are all brothers and sisters, from the lowliest to the greatest, and filled with the Holy Spirit, we are called and sent to live into our Christian identity by showing God's love, helping those in need, and bringing a little bit of the kingdom of God to this messed up, broken world. So do I think pastors, priests, deacons, diaconal ministers, youth ministers, and lay church leaders are important for the world? Hell yes! Until our world stops being messed up and until people stop starving to death, being affected by disasters, dying of diseases and struggling emotionally, our world needs the church, because we need God's healing. Communities of faith all over the world are in a prime position to reveal God's presence and love by acting as a force of justice and care for a world in great need.