The article is helpful. Thank you. I think it's really weird the way the difficulties of pastoral vocation get rarefied. Sure there are difficult aspects to the job - dual relationships, the stress that comes with any leadership position, carrying other people's troubles. But also frankly I have had congregants with far harder jobs - ICU nurses, crisis social workers, financial responsibility for 100s employees paychecks. And I wonder what the link is between this suffering rarefication and abuse of pastoral power (I can do X because I am uniquely suffering for Jesus). And I wonder if the particularly unique thing about pastoral vocation is many of us don't try and mitigate the stress through responsible actions such as supervision...
Thanks, Ben. You well articulated my concerns about the said ‘viral’ article in question. If you want to leave the church, leave the church. He talks a lot about the median salary for pastors being $55k but you know as well as I do he was making 2-3x more than that. And I caught the “just wait til you hear about the amazing way that I’m monetizing God next!” Church work is hard, pastoring is hard. But so was teaching in the public schools, and waiting tables and cooking in a kitchen and all the other ways I have made money over the years. But if you can’t make it work, don’t. What most don’t understand that he is doing the church a service by leaving, not a disservice. Thanks. Hope you and the fam are well.
This is so good, thank you! Articulated really well my discomfort with the 'Why I Left the Church' piece.
Also, from that pastor's piece, my goodness, this is not what church is about. A Presbyterian should know better! "When I became a pastor, I thought that the reason why this group of people gathered every Sunday was to explore deep questions about life and to push ourselves to become better humans."
My somewhat cynical conjecture is that people defend the impulse to do no-holds-barred "deep questions" preaching when, and because, they assume they already agree with where the speaker is going to end up. When Ben Shapiro or Richard Hanania talk like that, people rightly think they're being jerks.
The article is helpful. Thank you. I think it's really weird the way the difficulties of pastoral vocation get rarefied. Sure there are difficult aspects to the job - dual relationships, the stress that comes with any leadership position, carrying other people's troubles. But also frankly I have had congregants with far harder jobs - ICU nurses, crisis social workers, financial responsibility for 100s employees paychecks. And I wonder what the link is between this suffering rarefication and abuse of pastoral power (I can do X because I am uniquely suffering for Jesus). And I wonder if the particularly unique thing about pastoral vocation is many of us don't try and mitigate the stress through responsible actions such as supervision...
Thanks, Ben. You well articulated my concerns about the said ‘viral’ article in question. If you want to leave the church, leave the church. He talks a lot about the median salary for pastors being $55k but you know as well as I do he was making 2-3x more than that. And I caught the “just wait til you hear about the amazing way that I’m monetizing God next!” Church work is hard, pastoring is hard. But so was teaching in the public schools, and waiting tables and cooking in a kitchen and all the other ways I have made money over the years. But if you can’t make it work, don’t. What most don’t understand that he is doing the church a service by leaving, not a disservice. Thanks. Hope you and the fam are well.
This is so good, thank you! Articulated really well my discomfort with the 'Why I Left the Church' piece.
Also, from that pastor's piece, my goodness, this is not what church is about. A Presbyterian should know better! "When I became a pastor, I thought that the reason why this group of people gathered every Sunday was to explore deep questions about life and to push ourselves to become better humans."
My somewhat cynical conjecture is that people defend the impulse to do no-holds-barred "deep questions" preaching when, and because, they assume they already agree with where the speaker is going to end up. When Ben Shapiro or Richard Hanania talk like that, people rightly think they're being jerks.