I just received information about the first meeting of the 2009-10 Lewis Fellows, which I was accepted to be a part of a couple months ago. It's a group of about 20 "young clergy" that will meet 4 times over the course of a year. I wasn't sure I would be accepted, both becuase it is a select group and also because at 35 I'm getting pretty old for young clergy. But I'm excited to meet, interact with, and learn from clergy younger than me. I know I have a lot to learn.
It had me thinking back about 10 years to my student appointment in seminary. I was an associate pastor at a large church (by Kansas standards). I was assissting a recently retired associate pastor with a funeral with the senior pastor in attendance. the retired pastor introduced me as a person whom the deceased often called "that nice young pastor." After the funeral the senior pastor took me aside and said, "You know David, one of these days you're not going to be able to get by as 'that nice young pastor.' You're going to have to be 'that good pastor.'
Now as I look back I can acknowledge what at the time I couldn't - I wasn't a very good pastor. I've grown a lot since then but still have a lot of growing to do. And I wonder as I sit on the Board of Ordained Ministry would I have approved of myself as (in today's language) a provisional member? As an elder? I appreciate the movement towards holding higher levels of excellence in ministry but I wonder how we both hold high expectations and allow "nice young pastors" to become "good pastors".
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1 comment:
Very profound. Maybe he should have said "effective pastor".
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