Unlearning "Nice Little Priest" habits
One of the things that drove me batty
about the seminary experience in the Anglican tradition and the
clerical culture of Anglican priests in general is the penchant that
many Anglican clergy have to give no offense to anyone about
anything. We were taught not to offend anyone because we were
constantly supposed to be “pastoral.”
“Being Pastoral” is one of those
nice sounding buzzwords that clergy like to throw around. I found
that many parishioners likewise expected their clergy to “be
pastoral” as well, though no one could seem to coherently define
the term in any useful sense. If you have read my blog for any length
of time, you know how well company, cultural, or churchy buzzwords
and catch phrases sit with me: they cause an instant and immediate
gag reflex. My mental processes go into what I call buzz-aphylactic
shock like a reaction to a bad bee sting.
I realize most buzz words are usually
founded or coined for some productive purpose initially. A company or
a church needs a mission or vision or some reason or purpose for
existing, and to focus that existential angst, church growth gurus
and company HR management types come up with jingles or buzzwords.
This is all well and good, particularly in churches, because churches
do need a mission. Local ecclesial bodies that do not know why they
are there other than “we’ve always done it this way” are just a
short step from dwindling into oblivion.
I was always skeptical of the pressure
from various church big wigs to get local parishes to adopt buzzwords
or nebulous “mission statements,” which was all the rage a few
years back. Now the buzzword is “being missional.” I was
skeptical because the buzzword or mission statement seldom had any
real substance and almost never gets at the real roots of the
Christian mission or the lackadaisical pettiness or dysfunction that
can infest local congregations.
For example, what exactly does a church
that is “called to live into its baptismal covenant” really mean?
Does that mean that a congregation is supposed to become two
dimensional and jump into a page in the prayerbook like Alice
stepping through a looking glass? How does a church or individual
Christian actually go out and “be missional?” Ironically, my
spell checker does not even recognize “missional” as a word, nor
does my somewhat outdated college dictionary even list the word as an
actual word. Again, the term sounds great and trendy, but when you
actually start asking about how “being missional” or “living
into the baptismal covenant” is actually achieved in any tangible
checklist of items sense, you see the vacuous nature of such things.
Having fulfilled my need to
occasionally rant, I come to the point of my blog entry. I am not
saying that pastors or priests should be Oscars the Grouch in
clergywear. They should certainly attempt to manifest the good news
that they are called to proclaim. However, “being pastoral” often
has become equated with how Oprah Winfrey used to interview people on
her show: a constant touchy-feely, tear jerking, reach for the
nearest Kleenex fest. There are times for tears, but there are also
times for pastors to be assertive. There are even times that pastors
are called to call people to account for their bad behavior.
Sometimes that means not being nice about it. Sometimes that means
actually talking about [gasp!]sin[/gasp!].
Despite my best efforts at avoiding the
nebulously nefarious siren call to “be pastoral,” I have found in
my new secular job that I have heretofore vicariously gotten sucked
into being just that, despite my best efforts to the contrary. My
boss told me yesterday offhandedly that I needed to sound more
confident on the phone. Granted, I am still new at this job, and the
learning curve has been steep. But I know the way I answer the phone
in the office is the “being pastoral” part of me coming out.
Comments
Are you assigned to a parish? If so, which one?
Are you still 'discerning'?
You aren't in the tornado zone are you?
I do hope all is going well with you other than your secular job. I hope that gets better for you!
Be Well.