{"id":2265,"date":"2011-07-15T08:27:53","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T08:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/karenspearszacharias\/?p=2265"},"modified":"2011-07-15T08:27:53","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T08:27:53","slug":"the-risky-business-of-being-a-rock-star-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/karenspearszacharias\/2011\/07\/15\/the-risky-business-of-being-a-rock-star-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Risky Business of being a Rock Star Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>I\u2019ve written in many places about the life-long friendship I enjoyed with the pastor of my youth. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/karenspearszacharias\/2010\/12\/27\/pastor-smitty-the-rare-gift\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Pastor Smitty <\/a>was dear to me in that way that pastors can be to heart-sick children. He really was a good Shepherd. Kind and gentle. Slow to speak \u2014 those who knew him and Miz Betty best would say it\u2019s because he didn\u2019t stand a chance to do otherwise in her presence. Miz Betty was an actress from Texas. She liked her time in the limelight. But she was beautiful and had that sort of soprano voice that could peel the varnish skin back on the ceiling rafters.<\/p>\nTruth be told, I\u2019ve been blessed with a bevy of good-hearted pastors. I can\u2019t say enough about how their goodness shaped me, how their wisdom guided me, how their lives inspired me.<\/p>\nI feel their absence most everyday, often wondering \u2014 when the times comes, who will I call to fill that gap?<\/p>\nMy father-in-law has been that man to many such people. I wrote about him in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Will-Jesus-Buy-Double-Wide-ebook\/dp\/B0037BS2FY\/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide?<\/a><\/em> Only in that book, I call him The Missionary because for many years that\u2019s what he was. He and my mother-in-law and their two young children, went into Ecuador on the heels of the Jim Elliott slaying. My husband grew up alongside Steve Saint. \u00a0My in-laws youngest boy, known to my children as Uncle Mark, was born in the field. (Not literally, Ashley and Shelby. It\u2019s a manner of speaking among missionaries. Not like when Shelby was born in the hallway, so Ashley assumed she was born in the kitchen. Family story.)<\/p>\nAnyway, like I was saying, my in-laws have been the kind of Shepherds to hundreds that Pastor Smitty and Miz Betty were to me.<\/p>\nI have no idea what kind of pastors you\u2019ve had. I hope you\u2019ve had some really wonderful ones. Somebody you could call when that moment came and you needed a gentle soul at your side, to pray with you, to speak wisdom into your life, or have the wisdom to know not to speak at all.<\/p>\n#<\/p>\nPaul Young, whom many of you know as the author of The Shack<\/em>, sent me a note. His son\u2019s best friend was killed in a tragic accident recently. I don\u2019t think Paul would mind me telling you that Adam was like an \u201cadopted\u201d son to him. Any of you who have raised children understand exactly what Paul means by that. \u00a0At the boy\u2019s memorial service, Paul prayed this prayer that he wrote:<\/p>\nOh Adam,<\/em><\/p>\nhow silently you slipped away\u2026and<\/em><\/p>\nnone of us were ready.<\/em><\/p>\nOur universe<\/em><\/p>\nwas torn in two\u2026but<\/em><\/p>\njust enough<\/em><\/p>\nto let you through,<\/em><\/p>\nagain a tree became a door<\/em><\/p>\nand there you go\u2026headlong\u2026into the waiting arms of Jesus,<\/em><\/p>\nand instantly<\/em><\/p>\nyou knew<\/em><\/p>\nwhat love is all about,<\/em><\/p>\nwhy children dance,<\/em><\/p>\nwhere songs are born,<\/em><\/p>\nand who it is who mends the brokenhearted,<\/em><\/p>\nwhile we\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nwith shattered tears remain,<\/em><\/p>\nour feet now stilled<\/em><\/p>\nour songs just scattered in the wind<\/em><\/p>\nbut as we tell the memory of your life and love<\/em><\/p>\nwe understand better what a friend is,<\/em><\/p>\nand soft but sure<\/em><\/p>\nthe seeds of hope<\/em><\/p>\nbegin<\/em><\/p>\nto bloom\u2026again.<\/em><\/p>\nOh Father, love our brother, son,<\/em><\/p>\nin your embrace as in our own<\/em><\/p>\nAnd Spirit, please wipe away his tears<\/em><\/p>\nfor death has died so now he truly lives<\/em><\/p>\nAnd Jesus, tell him how he\u2019s missed,<\/em><\/p>\nwhat we would trade for one last kiss,<\/em><\/p>\nor hug,<\/em><\/p>\nor note,<\/em><\/p>\nor text,<\/em><\/p>\nor grin\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nYet even now,<\/em><\/p>\namidst the ashes of our grief,<\/em><\/p>\nthe seeds of hope<\/em><\/p>\nbegin<\/em><\/p>\nto bloom\u2026again.<\/em><\/p>\nWm Paul Young<\/p>\n7\/5\/2011<\/p>\n#<\/p>\nDon\u2019t we all long for someone to speak into our lives, and over our graves, with the sort of love and devotion that Paul had for Adam?<\/p>\nI know I do.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s why I was stirred by Mark Galli\u2019s troubling\u00a0article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2011\/julyweb-only\/mostriskyprofession.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Most Risky Profession<\/a> in Christianity Today. <\/em><\/p>\nYou must read the article. It\u2019s one of the best analysis of the hazards of ministry in today\u2019s culture, in which everybody demands to have a Rock Star pastor.<\/p>\nAnswer me this, c\u2019mon be truthful \u2014 Do you pray for your pastor and his\/her family ?<\/p>\nAnd if you are a pastor or in some ministry capacity, what do you think of Galli\u2019s analysis that \u201cMost pastors have become heads of personality cults. Churches become identified more with the pastor\u2014this is Such-and-Such\u2019s church\u2014than with anything larger. When that pastor leaves, or is forced to leave, it\u2019s devastating. It feels a like a divorce, or a death in the family, so symbiotic is today\u2019s relationship between pastor and people.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve written in many places about the life-long friendship I enjoyed with the pastor of my youth. Pastor Smitty was dear to me in that way that pastors can be to heart-sick children. He really was a good Shepherd. Kind and gentle. Slow to speak \u2014 those who knew him and Miz Betty best would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[275,310,489,868,1053,1113,1278,1279,1280,1287,1317,1364,1394,1584,1655,1732,1742,1880,1906],"class_list":["post-2265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-celebrity","tag-christianity-today","tag-ecuador","tag-jim-elliot","tag-mark-galli","tag-missionaries","tag-pastor-statistics","tag-pastors","tag-pastors-fleeing-ministry","tag-paul-young","tag-pitfalls","tag-pride","tag-quitting","tag-sin","tag-steve-saint","tag-the-shack","tag-through-gates-of-splendor","tag-willie-ramos","tag-wycliffe-bible-translators"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The Risky Business of being a Rock Star Pastor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've written in many places about the life-long friendship I enjoyed with the pastor of my youth. 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