“I’m a pastor.”

In many parts of the country today is Election Day. We are having municipal elections here in Atlanta, and people will come to our church to vote. Today, dozens of people who have never worshiped here will come into our building.

While our sanctuary is pristine, the part of the building in which they will vote was built in the 1950s and has been hardly touched since. I worry that they won’t know that we are not the 1950s church that they will see and smell when they enter that part of the building. I was tempted to put up a sign, but what would it say? “Don’t believe your eyes or nose”?!?

On a flight home from Minneapolis on Saturday night the man sitting next to me introduced himself and promptly asked what kind of work I do. For me, there were several problems with that. I like to be anonymous on planes and read quietly. As an introvert who just spent the day with a large number of strangers, the last thing I wanted is to have a two-hour relationship with another one.

However, my mother wouldn’t like it if I was impolite, so I knew I had to smile and tell him my name. Still, I thought, “How do I answer his question?” If I say, “Oh, I’m a preacher,” then he is going to talk religion and that is probably not going to end well. If I say “I’m a consultant,” which also is true, I’m probably just postponing the same conversation because I’m a church consultant. Sometimes I say, “I’m an author,” but, even though I’ve written 10 books, that doesn’t feel completely honest. He likely would ask what I’ve written, which takes me right back to a conversation about religion.

Finally, I just said, “I’m a pastor.” To my surprise, that shut him up completely. He looked like he smelled something rotten and pulled a magazine from the seatback. I was glad to have the peace and quiet, but still I had this overwhelming urge to say to him, “But wait, I’m not THAT kind of preacher!”

Although I don’t know what he thought about me and my vocation, I can imagine, because the truth is I’ve encountered them, too. I want to wear a sign that says, “I’m not THAT kind of Christian.” I’m not sure it would help; in fact, I suspect the only thing that will rehabilitate the reputation of Christians in our culture is for those of us who really are not “THAT kind of Christian” to start showing more clearly what kind we are.