"A pastor is one who feeds and guides the people. I guess if I had to associate one word with pastor, it would be growth. A pastor is one who understands how to grow people. A pastor must understand human relationships, family, communication-in short, what makes people tick and how they tick well together."(R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p.242)
The first thing a priest at their ordination is told the are called to is "to work as a pastor." I find this interesting, that the most important work I do as a priest is the pastoral work, not the priestly stuff, not the teaching, but the caring for other people.
I hope I've done this pretty well. I consider it one of my favorite parts of my vocation. Of course the only judges of it are those for whom I've pastored.
I hope in someways that even outside of my job as a priest, I've been someone who understands people and relationships. Who knows how to see and bring out the best in others. Again, I'm a lousy self judge.
I will say that I think the church does not value the pastoral component of the priesthood very much anymore, but they sure scream when it doesn't happen. Maybe it's assumed that all priests and ministers are pastoral by nature and that is their strongest gift. I know enough clergy to tell you it's not always the case.
Today faith communities talk about wanting administrators, and program developers, and there are people with great gifts in those areas. But for a church to really grow or at least to be healthy and living fully into being the compassionate body of Christ, if the pastoral function isn't working, the body is in big trouble.
And it is also true that even outside of the church, if we have not been blessed enough to ever have someone in our lives who understands how we tick and how to bring out the best in us, we too will wither on the vine.
Blessings,
Ed
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment