Visit & The Contemplative Pastor

Last night I had a chance to visit a new emergent worshipping community. It was good to see some of the principles I had explored put into practice. I don't want to be too critical so I'll just comment on a couple of things the experience raised for me. First, it reminded me of the importance of the physical space you are using. The service occured in a traditional sanctuary space and while they tried to do exciting new things, the traditional arrange of the sanctuary inhibited movement and flow. This made me doubly grateful for the flexibility in our worship space at Mountain View. Second, the service reminded me of the importance of balancing lay and clergy/lay leader roles. The energy of the service came primarily from 2 individuals. While there were others involved in supporting roles, the worship leadership conceptualization felt fairly traditional. While the service did have other involved in specific roles (i.e. serving communion) they didn't create these folks in the bulletin as they did the other leaders. I also found this was the case with the music. Most of the music was unfamiliar and so the bulk of the music came from the one primary song leader. It made it easy for the rest of the gathering to let the one individual take the lead. This is exactly Walters discussed in his section on music in the book "Can't Wait for Sunday". With all of this said, there were many very creative elements of the service. The scriptural reading, for instance, was a wonderful "dialogue" of sorts between the Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament texts. I also like the call & response the worship facilitators used throughout the service that was taught at the start of the gathering. I also like the way they transitioned from a gathering space in a fellowship hall into the sanctuary. There was much that was done to help create a worshipful, sacred time together. Now, on to my latest exploration. Yesterday, I started reading Eugene Peterson's book "The Contemplative Pastor". I LOVE Peterson's translation of the Bible ("The Message") and have been anxious to read something of his for quite a while now. I also thought that as I began to turn my attention to spiritual formation aspects of the life of a worshipping community it would be appropriate for me to ground myself in my own issues of spiritual formation as a pastor. Peterson's words through the first six chapters have been both pastoral and challenging. Let me tell you what I mean. In his first four chapters in the section of his book titled "Redefinitions", Peterson suggests their are three words that should be used to describe an effective pastor: unbusy, subversive, and apocalyptic. In sitting with these words, I realized I would give myself a B+ in the realm of subversive, and C- in the realm of apocalyptic, and a solid F in the unbusy realm. I felt confident in my abilities to be subversive because I think one of my gifts is to meet people where they are at and speak in the languages they are accustomed to using - but then slowly, over time, begin to invite folks in the questions process regarding their own assumptions and ways of being. I often do this not in a directive manner, but by simply modeling other ways of being in the world. Hence my B+ in this area. I gave myself a C- in the apocalyptic realm because while I often communicate a sense of importance and urgency, as a mainline pastor I have too often done this in a programmatic way. I've tried to grab people's interest and attention through things like service, fellowship, and mission projects. Where I've fallen short is communicating the sense of importance and urgency in a more spiritual plane (i.e. within the realm of individual and communal transformation). Finally, the F in the realm of being unbusy. As a pastor of an ecumenical church, I've done a wonderful job of filling my time with meetings (from 5 sources - 3 denominations, ecumenical board, and local church stuff), and a terrible job at nurturing my own spiritual formation. Listen to what Peterson says about the ways pastors can use their time. "But if I vainly crowd my day with conspicuous activity or let others fill my day with imperious demands, I don't have time to do my proper work, the work to which I have been called. How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion? How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?" (19). His suggestion for where pastors should place their priorities: (1) prayer, (2) preaching, and (3) listening (19-21). I would tweak Peterson's priorities a bit myself. For instance, instead of preaching (which reflects more of a Reform and modern perspective) I would emphasize worship leading which puts the proclamation in a broader perspective (at least for me). I would also do what Walters suggested in his book and add personal service to the list of three as I believe a pastor is called to model what it means to be a servant leader - and his/her service should NOT be limited solely to the lambs on the local church's membership roles. The other incredibly helpful distinction Peterson makes is between two models of ministry pastors can choose from: (1) they can serve as the pastor who "runs-the-church", or (2) they can serve as the pastor who "curses the soul". I'm new into these chapters, but from my initial readings in this area it is clear that I've spent too much time as a pastor who "runs the church" - partly due to my own issues and partly due to the issues at the church I serve. As I prepare to head back into full-time ministry in seven weeks - and as I continue my own explorations this summer - my goal is to grow ever deeper in my ability to serve as a pastor who participates in the process of curing souls. I realize my reflections on Peterson's book may not relate specifically to emerging issues. These issues relating to pastoral identity are obviously important to me, and I believe they will inform how I (and we) proceed in our ministries together. Til next time...