‪When Being An American Pastor Conflicts With Following Jesus

Pastors Are Just Regular People Usually Upheld to Unrealistic Ideals… 

Usually, when people respond to this question, “What do you look for in a pastor?” they don’t answer it in regard to what they’re looking for in a pastor, so much as what they’ve been told they should expect from a pastor.

Personally, if a pastor presents themselves as being truly “above reproach” (in the conservative evangelical understanding of this term) it’s only a matter of time until they burn out, resent their job, lose their faith, or, begin their first day of showing up but no longer being present.

Their expectations of pastors consist of assumptions they’ve been handed by culture as opposed to scripture; e.g. doesn’t drink, never smokes, doesn’t curse, abstains from anything sexual (even if perfectly appropriate outside of their religious assumptions). Neither Christianity or Jesus stood for any of these as universal law we should all follow; It’s the misconstruing of what it means to live above reproach.

When doctrine is presented as this unmitigated form of “truth,” we then wrongfully utilize it to define someone’s character. It should make one question: How many pastors have been fired for not abiding by social conservativisms falsified morality? Or, how many people who were created to be pastors were kept out of these institutions because they were convinced of the lie that God deemed them unfit (keeping in mind, women still can’t preach in many US churches; LGBTQ are still wrongfully condemned by TGC, et. al)?

Following rules to please their people then becomes the goal for pastoring.

If you’re expending all of your energy on people-pleasing then how much energy do you have left for following Christ?

The rules we had to follow were not about following Jesus; they were about pleasing people and living a life “above reproach.” Jesus clear preached the opposite of these evangelical laws.

¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’¹⁹ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” ²⁰ Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 

– Jesus (Matthew 11:18-20, NIV) 

When being an American pastor conflicts with Following Jesus…

Who created the American pastor…? I’m definitely not going to go into the historicity of how this came about but, what I think far too many have come to find is that being an American pastor conflicts with following Jesus.

The reason people loved Jesus, in my opinion, wasn’t because He was “God” or a self-professing Messiah; it was because He forfeited His throne in order to be with and walk alongside His people (the poor, the sick, the outcast, etc.). He didn’t give a fuck about the pharisaical law; He consistently chose to love the downtrodden over pleasing the religious leaders.

This is what we all want from a pastor; this is what most of us are looking for in a church.

The same reason pastors are burning out is the same reason people are leaving the Church; it’s unbearable. It’s that moment you realize this isn’t what you signed up for.

What Would Jesus Look for in a Pastor…?