The pastoral vocation is to help people grow spiritually, resist their lowest impulses and adopt higher, more compassionate ways. But churchgoers increasingly want pastors to soothe and entertain them. It’s apparent in the theater-style seating and giant projection screens in churches and in mission trips that involve more sightseeing than listening to the local people.
ANd of course it all gets down to asking what the church is there for, who God is calling us to be.
ADDENDUM (Aug 9)
Here is a well written response to that op-ed piece.
And here is another article on clergy burnout.
Never understood the perspective of going to church to be entertained rather than respectively worship and learn in a community of fellow Christians.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the response to the article, I think that one thing clergy and lay people need to do is to envision clergy as professionals.
ReplyDeleteNot as people who are necessarily holier-than-thou, but as people who have been trained to do a particular job that encompasses much more than most people realize.
For confirmation of this, read the lead article in the Summer edition of the Observer. I came from that article with the feeling that many United Church folks really haven't the foggiest idea what a minister really does for a living.