Take Some Risks
Most people will see you as a pastor first. I want people to see me as a follower of Jesus who happens to be a pastor. (In my mind, the difference is big!)
Accomplishing this goal takes some work. Many church members see pastors as a step above the normal person. (Some pastors even believe this to be true.)
To me, the pastor who is viewed as a normal person has an extreme advantage over the one who is viewed as the perfect spiritual leader.
To demystify your pastoral role, you’ll have to take some self-revealing risks. Here are a few suggestions when revealing personal flaws.
- If you are courageous enough to expose selected spiritual doubts, people may relate to you as a real person.
- If you carefully reveal a martial struggle (with permission from your spouse), people may be more likely to listen.
- When you tell about certain failures, many people will feel an increased bond with you.
- If you are hurting and you express your need, your church family can be aware to pray for and minister to you.
It is not uncommon for someone to say, “Craig when you shared about your struggle with ____________ (fill in the blank), I knew you were a pastor I could relate with.”
A few people might reject you for you authentic confessions, but the vast majority will accept, embrace, and trust you as a genuine believer wrestling to grow closer to Christ.
Visit 
I can pretend that I have it all together or I can live like I need a Savior. Too many pastors try to be the Savior rather than pointing people to Him by the reality of their lives.
I refuse to hold up the facade of perfection, instead I will live a life showing the power of God working in the not so pretty areas of my life. Allowing others to see the transformation in my own life is a lot more powerful that just talking about it.
To be honest christians and not recycled paper saints.
Cool post Craig!
:)
I´m a disciple who happens to work as a pastor in Sweden, and I´m just so thrilled to have found this blog! European life is somewhat different that American life, but people are people everywhere. And what you share about honesty, transparency and real-life-discipleship works everywhere, I´m sure! You r doing a great job with this blog! You have made my day!
I really struggled with this when starting our church. I didn’t love the whole pastor tag because people put unreal expectations on you and sometimes clam up and quit being who they are…basically putting on a front. I love to lead and serve that way, but I want people to see Jesus in me first not “pastor”. But, the last 6 to 8 months I have realized I have to make extra efforts to keep those walls from building up and letting people know I am know different. I have struggles, I have doubts sometimes, I don’t have it all figured out, God doesn’t love me more than anyone else, etc…
It takes some extra effort and its all worth it. I echo Duff’s remarks that pastors need a Savior just like everyone else. We to are broken, lost people without the love and salvation found in Christ.
Henrik, So glad to have you join the discussion! God’s best to your ministry in Sweden!
This statement is THE KEY….”I want people to see me as a follower of Jesus who happens to be a pastor.” I pray all leaders GET THIS! I wonder how things would be different if we could all just grasp the fact that We are NOTHING and God is EVERYTHING?
We are blessed when He works through us and uses our small lives for his MEGA purpose…God is NO RESPECTER of persons and the sin of the Pope is as unclean as the sin of a murderer….In the same respect the Grace given to the pastor is just as real as the grace given to the prostitute….Our God is AMAZING!!!!
I think that, when you have the “Follower of Jesus who happens to be a pastor, evangelist, etc.” attitude, you’ll have to fight in order to avoid two kind of walls:
1) The walls that are build by yourself (knowing that you’re just another christian and you’re fighting for stay on the marathon and finish it)
2) The walls that are build by the people (knowing that the only difference is that you have a bigger target on your back, so you really need another christians to invest, support, help, pray and share life with you)
Bottom line: the pastor and the church, both, can glorify the pastor figure, and that means double effort in the marathon, but it’s worth the sweat.
:)
I believe that this post follows what the scripture reveals about Jesus’ incarnation: that He came to earth to live a real life before us as an example. He cried, He got angry, He was frustrated with people’s lack of faith, He laughed, He grieved, He loved kids and got into heated discussions with religious know-it-alls. While we are very different as pastors in that we are sinners as opposed to the perfect Christ, we can still live a normal life that serves as an example to believers.They see our progress and know that while we are flawed, we are also growing in our relationship with God. It is much better to walk with people through life than it is to descend from the heavens every week with grand edicts and an air of superiority. People are just not going to buy in to that, nor should they.
Great post. Authenticity is the key to all leadership and ironically I wrote about this very thing today on my blog. As a pastor, people are drawn to me the most when I am most genuine. I love that!
I had a conversation with a fellow band member who is dealing with some struggles. He said that he was afraid to talk to me about them because, in his mind, my life seemed very together. I assured him that I have my share of junk, but the difference was how I dealt with things. It is neat to see how I revealed some things about myself to him and walls were broken down. Thanks for the encouragement this morning, Craig. God uses you in a very timely manner!
I would agree. Problem, though, is that there are some churches/people that don’t want their pastor to be a real person. They prefer the shiny, happy, plastic pastor that has mastered the art of pretending. I’m thinking that this is their preference because that way they don’t have to be real either — they can continue pretending and playing the game and doing the dance. At least that’s been my experience with “church people”.
Chejoo, Very insightful! Thanks!
Todd, Great thoughts about Jesus!
Gerald, Powerful! So glad you had the courage to open up!
SO true. I took your “Confessions of a Pastor” series and modified it for my youth group. To my surprise, it attracted MORE students and MORE students remember that series than even the sex series we do EVERY year
Craig,
I agree. However not every church culture likes their pastor to be authentic. My transparency caused lots of pain in a transitioning situation. I think it was because most of them came from dysfunctional homes and the dysfunction carried on into the church. How would you overcome that?
I couldn’t have put this better. This is so true. I’ve been doing this my self and, just like you said, people actualy see that you are real when you do it. The very unfortunate reality is that people think that Just because we’ve been called to preach and teach His word that we OBVIOUSLY have it all together, the reality this couldn’t be further from the truth! Well put. God Bless you guys!
Kevin, Good to hear from you. I’m not sure what to suggest. You said it was during a transition time. Maybe they didn’t really want to hear what you were going through as you were transitioning.
Are any of you in a church culture that resists authenticity and vulnerability in preaching?
Craig~ You are so right! I want to just be a follower of Jesus, with a specific ministry! Thanks for the thoughts!!
When I meet new people, I rarely tell them that I’m a pastor right away. It seems that when I say that, I comes along with all kinds of presuppositions of who I am because people have baggage from other (possibly non authentic) pastors they have come across, or simply just their perception of what a pastor should be. It’s certainly not that I’m ashamed that I’m a pastor, I just don’t want the fact that I am to be a wall between us. Am I off base here?
Right on! We are trying to build our new church on principles of integrity and transparency, and I and the rest of our leadership team have to show people what that looks like. I make a regular practice of coming clean and admitting in my public speaking and in my one-on-one interactions that I don’t have it all figured out and am still very much a work in progress. I think Jenn’s comment hit the nail on the head. God is no respecter of persons. He sees us as we are–filthy rags in need of his cleansing.
This post caused me to think of the book, “In The Name of Jesus” by Henri Nouwen:
“Often I have the impression that priests and ministers are the least confessing people in the Christian community…Ministers and priests are also called to be full members of their community, are accountable to them and need their affection and support, and are called to minister with their whole being, including their wounded selves.”
Thanks for sharing this Craig! Not being vulnerable with my church was something that I struggled with a lot for many years of my ministry. It took a HUGE wake-up call from God to snap me out of this. It still isn’t easy to do and not everyone always appreciates it but as you said “I want people to see me as a follower of Jesus who happens to be a pastor.” Whether they like it or not, I struggle too . . .
Craig,
I couldn’t agree with you more about this subject. For me it is always a balance between say just enough or too much. I don’t struggle with saying too little as my church has discovered all too well. I do have a question in regards to bringing You or me or.. you know what I mean. Does that mean using myself as an example or showing my passion for the subject matter? I tend to use myself a lot as an illustration and I wonder sometimes if it is too much.
Thanks,
Rusty Williams
I was talking to somebody about intensly altering our lives in light of Scripture…pushing hard to follow everything Christ said. They replied by telling me that it was different for me - I needed to intensly follow Christ because I’m a pastor, but they didn’t necessarily need to (even though they are a believer).
But I’m just a follower of Christ who so happens to be a pastor. As a believer, I’m doing it to honor God. Why would any believer believe a “pastor” needs to follow it more than they do? It’s so sad! After all, we are all ministers.
AuthentiCity. I’m not authentic enough. Honestly, sometimes I think I fake it. And I know it’s seeable. No more!
Craig, I couldn’t agree with you more: “Most people will see you as a pastor first. I want people to see me as a follower of Jesus who happens to be a pastor. (In my mind, the difference is big!)”
So true! FYI, I just quoted you and gave you a shout-out at equippingministryblog.com.
Craig, I read your book, “Confessions of a Pastor”. At that point I realized that although your earthly job title is “Senior Pastor”, you’re committed to being seen as a Follower of Christ who happens to be a pastor.
I think your authenticity is one of the reasons we consider LifeChurch our home church.
I can so relate to this. Didn’t Jesus discourage his disciples from letting people call them rabbi? I appreciate the honoring going on but I’ll trade that for good ole down to earth Darien.
Craig,
thanks for this great post! I heard Larry Osborne address this at a conference last year. He said (rough paraphrase) “If you try to live like a pastor, you’ll be a fake or burnout. If you try to live like a mature Christian, you’ll thrive.” Maybe not the exact words, but I liked the advice. I suppose a cynic could say, “I just live like me” but I found the words to be very helpful
Steve
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Or, they can attack you as a group while you are opening yourself up. Had it happen a month ago. Still recovering.
It’s amazing that the “office” of a “senior Pastor” is totally man-made and invented and non-Scriptural…and yet very few even question it……………..
Great stuff Craig. Thanks for the encouragement. I recently served with a friend who tried to encourage me to not be transparent. It was a tough conversation when I told him that I was selective with my transparency (and depth of it) but I wasn’t going to change it. Thanks again for the encouragement to continue to lead as a real person saved by an amazing God.