Dear Rose Park,
Did you ever hear the story about the pastor who wanted to move the piano from one side of the stage to the other? He knew he couldn’t just move it all on one Sunday; it wasn’t a question of his physical capability, but he knew it wouldn’t go over well. The piano had always been on a certain side and it had never been moved. So, instead of a shock and awe approach, the pastor decided to be patient. Each Sunday he moved the piano just one inch until it eventually was on the other side. When he was finished, no one even noticed the subtle change.
This is a story of persistent, patient, and effective change. Too often, when we desire to effect change we rip off the band-aid and change everything all at once. This might be fine for an individual, but rarely does this go over well in a community (not to mention, it typically results in broken relationships and ineffective change). Change is difficult; we can call it a variety of terms but at the end of the day change involves saying ‘no’ to one way and saying ‘yes’ to another. Whether it’s in the school system, our government, our families, or even our churches change is often best received and embraced when it is done slowly over a period of time.
At its’ core, this is what I’m trying to do in my doctoral work. It’s my hope to uncover and then recall the dignity and holiness of the pastor through patient change over a period of time. Here’s what I mean: somewhere along the lines, pastors transitioned from the work of study, prayer, and discipleship to management and oversight. Sermons became TED-talks. Pastoral counseling became self-help workshops. Training pastors through the process of ordination became a five-minute online certification. Communal sacraments turned into privatized experiences. Pastors turned into shopkeepers trying to provide services for the unending demand of customers.
This transition didn’t occur overnight and it won’t be reversed overnight either. Hear me out, it is not my intent to be the proverbial old-man on the porch yelling at the new way of doing things. It is not my intent to disproportionately critique the pastor while remaining on the sidelines; instead, it’s my hope to listen to the voices of scripture, the wisdom of the saints, and the stories of the Church to recall the dignity of the pastor because it is a calling worthy of a life.
This leads me to a tremendous amount of gratitude. Thank you not only for your continued support as I journey through this doctoral program, but thank you for encouraging me, with your words and actions, to be the kind of pastor who values the pursuit of a Christ-like community over the pursuit of personal preferences, who values the pursuit of patience and faithfulness over the pursuit of knee-jerk decisions fueled by trends, and who values the pursuit of righteousness over the pursuit of notoriety.
This kind of change takes patience in order to take root. It’s my hope and prayer that through this doctoral work I might be able to offer a small glimpse into what the pastor was and can be again.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark
Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash