Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Being a Pastor is who you are, not what you do!

After nearly a year of unsuccessfully trying to post new comments, I finally gave up this entire blogging thing. Then, this morning, I decided to give it one more try! To my surprise, whatever technical difficulty I was facing earlier is now gone! I'm not sure what happened, but I can finally once again make entries and I eager to do so. So, I hope to be saying a lot over the next several weeks as I post old entries that have been "clogged up" for nearly a year! Here is the first!
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This is the first summer that I've not been engaged in pastoral ministry in a very long time! I stepped down from the pastorate last August in order to dedicate my efforts to the work of Reformed Theological Seminary in DC. It is something that I knew I had to do, and I also wanted to do it....although it was very difficult to leave a church that I planted and the community of people whom I love.
This is the first summer in which I didn't have to think about pastoral ministry....no sermon planning, no vision casting, no thoughts on growing the churhc, no pastoral visitations, no counseling, etc. So how was my summer? In this regard it felt empty. I had more time to dedicate to preparing classes for the seminary, which was very productive. I've also had some time to research writing projects and develop my thoughts on various theological doctrines and issues of Biblical interpretation. In that sense I had a great summer.
Yet, through all these months, I've come to realize that being a pastor is a description of who you are, moreso than what you do. I was a pastor for over 16 years and I miss it. Perhaps it is time to go back into the pastorate at some part-time capacity.