Dichotomy of Impressions

February 15, 2012

This picture got posted on my Facebook timeline (I guess it isn’t a feed/wall anymore, but that is another post). I think it shows a true identity crisis of pastors. A United Methodist Pastor has a master’s degree, years of training and experience and yet friends still believe we only work 1 hour per week and the reality is we do more paperwork than anything else.

I love being a pastor, and I love being a Methodist pastor but sometimes what people believe we do and what we actually do are two very different things.

Which I guess leaves me (and perhaps you) to live in this dichotomy or prove it wrong. We can become swamped under paperwork and not actually get any ministry done. Or we can decide that paperwork is not the most important part of ministry and that people are and we can get out there and work our tails off in ways that don’t feel like work because we are interacting with people, bringing the divine into the dirty and allowing people to think we aren’t working when in reality being with people who need grace is the best work we can be doing.

Or maybe I am seeing this wrong but if our statistical reports are the most important parts of our calling then we have missed the gospel somewhere.