Where Have All The Pastors Gone?

The late Eugene Peterson made the observation back in 1987 that pastors in America were leaving their posts "left and right, and at an alarming rate".  Adding some clarification to his observation, he went on to say that they were not literally leaving their congregations as much as they were leaving their calling.  He put it this way, "Congregations still pay their salaries.  Their names remain on church stationary and they continue to appear in pulpits on Sundays.  But they are abandoning their posts, their calling.  They have gone whoring after other gods."

The "other gods" he had in mind were the gods of ambition, influence, respect, prestige, recognition, status, success, and significance all summed up under the category of church growth.  His words, back in 1987 were prophetic.

The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches.  They are preoccupied with shopkeeper's concerns--how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out the money.  Some of them are very good shopkeepers.  They attract a lot of customers, pull in great sums of money, develop splendid reputations.  Yet it is still shopkeeping; religious shopkeeping, to be sure, but shopkeeping all the same.  

So, thirty-two years down the road where has this "shopkeeper" mentality left us.  I think its left us with churches, who having obediently followed their shopkeeping pastors, have become "shop franchises" all trying to be or at least appear successful in marketing whatever it is they are marketing on a particular Sunday or series of Sundays. 

But, as Peterson went on to say back in 1987,  "The biblical fact is there are no successful churches.  There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. . . [And] in these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community . . . to keep the community attentive to God.

Biblically speaking that has not changed.  At best, we are still a community of sinners, albeit, forgiven sinners who live our lives together before God week in and week out--all struggling with the same temptation to become inattentive to God.  Those gatherings who have been led to forget this and thus, have become distracted with becoming cutting edge, relevant, pragmatic, and bigger so as to be labeled "successful" probably should not be called churches.

Nor should their leaders rightfully be called "pastors"--not if the pastor's job is to see his success in terms of shepherding his flock, no matter the size, of forgiven sinners he has been charged to lead to remain attentive to their God rather than the distractions of the world.  Maybe its time for those pastors who can no longer stomach the business of shopkeeping to return to their calling of leading flocks of gospel believing and thus, forgiven sinners to be attentive to God week in and week out.  Maybe its high time, for all who are called pastors to reaffirm their primary calling of preaching, praying, and shepherding rather than building bigger more sophisticated shops.  And for all you real pastors--men who have resisted the temptation to become shopkeepers--who still preach the Word of God, pray for the sheep, and shepherd the flock, week in and week out, Thank You!