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Do I Have to Be a Half-Caf, Light Soy, No Whip, Rockstar Pastor?

My wife is a bit simplistic in her entertainment choices. At the time of this post, we've been married almost 24 years and her television show preferences remain the same. Her ideal lunch at home on her day off is Diet Coke, roast turkey on white bread and any episode of Little House on the Prairie. Since she was a little girl she's been in love with Laura Ingalls and the whole gang. As a pastor, I watch various episodes and find myself intrigued by Reverend Alden. His life seems so simple. His calling seems so clear.


I think he was a circuit pastor meaning that he ministered in several small communities. He wasn't caught up in big denominational politics. His goal wasn't to move on to the next big thing. He wasn't even judging himself based upon how many people were in his congregation(s). Serving the Lord seemed so simply through his lens.

So is this ok? I feel that at this point in my life and career I've been through every sort of training known to man. I've been pep-talked into not just being a pastor but also a "movement-maker". My people are not simply a congregation but a "multiplication pipeline". I need to be a "sender", a "community influencer", a leadership development expert, a church growth expert and and missional apostolic church multiplier. I should probably join the local Chamber of Commerce to boot! I look with envy upon Reverend Alden some days.

Most days I simply want to touch one other person with gospel truth. I pray to see at least one other person grow closer and more mature in Jesus. When I was young and more hip I used to chuckle at pastors who wanted simple ministry. They enjoyed church fellowships and prayer meetings. They cherished doing weddings and funerals. They liked getting up early to do hospital visits. I thought they were selling themselves short because they weren't reading more books by famous evangelical guru's on 20 different topics unrelated to pastoral ministry.

As I get older I find that I'v giving myself a little more leeway. Oh, I read a lot. I read plenty of different things from secular and church history to current hot topics in the church. But I know longer feel a push to be something I'm not ready or equipped to be. I find myself reevaluating what healthy fruit and meaningful biblical metrics should look like for me as a pastor. If I could give advice to the younger me it would look something like this:

  • Read a lot but don't pressure yourself to be everything.

  • Begin to imagine standing before Jesus, and imagine why He will applaud your work.

  • Start keeping a list of individual testimonies of lives you've impacted and touched. (I've influence people in foreign mission fields, pulpits, church starts, business owners, and authors. Not because I was fancy, but because I cared individually.)

  • Pastoral ministry is not meant to ever be "joyless".

  • You are gifted in a certain way for a reason. You are given a certain personality for a reason. Don't feel pressure to be someone else.

Reverend Alden was a frontier pastor with little training in church growth, church multiplication, apostolic communication, or leadership development. His goal was to impact lives and not dying at the hands of a Native American. If you Google him you'll find that his life took some twists and turns with some ugly spots. Yet my guess is that when pastors like Alden arrive in heaven, they still received a worthy reward from the Lord.


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