Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions • Sermon • Submitted
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If I, even for a moment, accept my culture’s definition of me, I am rendered harmless.
It is widely accepted knowledge that a healthy noun doesn’t need a supporting adjective. This is so standard any textbook on writing will say as such. Yet, no textbook on grammar I am aware of talks about working with culturally damaged nouns. These are nouns that have fallen from grace and been either replaced or redefined. Sin is now a mistake. Backsliding has been stricken from the everyday speech. And the poor noun Gender has undergone quite a transformation. So, sometimes when words get so abused by the culture they require adjectives.
Religious job titles - Rabbi, Pastor, Worship Leader, Dance Minister, etc. - are nouns that used to mean one thing, but now, they barely resemble what they once were. A twofold assault has taken place on religious job titles. On the one side, the secular culture has trivialized these titles to represent little more than fraudulent dealers of religious goods in the open market place or merchants of death who wish to steal your soul with your money. On the other side, the assault has come from within the church itself. The trend over the last 25 years amongst most churches is to seek to define these titles by corporate America. Hence, a pastor is a CEO , Worship and dance leaders are the entertainers, and on and on it goes. These titles have now become subject to much parody and diluted of any real meaning by American opportunism. The need for strengthening adjectives is critical. The need to find our way back to the healthy noun is critical.
These job descriptions are an attempt to find our way back to a healthy understanding of our God given vocation and definition. We must not look to the culture for answers and we must be evermore discerning if we think we are going to find answers at other institutions of Christian faith. The way back is long and the path narrow but there is a way back.
Irrelevant Pastor - to become a pastor of no reputation.
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
ἀλλʼ ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν μορφὴν δούλου λαβών,
BDAG, correctly understands the meaning of the Greek word κενόω as a...
divestiture of position or prestige: of Christ, who gave up the appearance of his divinity and took on the form of a slave, ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν he emptied himself, divested himself of his prestige or privileges
I think it is correct to understand Paul as saying two things with one verb. The Messiah divested himself of his God privileges and of any prestige associated with being God. I want to focus on the later idea of this verb: divesting from prestige. Paul did not learn this idea by simply contemplating deeply on the person of Jesus, though I know he did contemplate deeply, but it is a very Isaianic concept:
He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at Him, no appearance that we should desire Him.
The great prophet Isaiah foresaw a Messiah who did not appear with any real prestige. What Isaiah could not know or perhaps understand is that the Messiah himself was restraining that prestige that was ever brimming inside of Him. The prestige of the one who formed angel, cosmos, and all that we know. His actual prestige is of no equal or rival but he restrained that prestige, never leaned into it not even for the slightest moment.
Merriam Webster defines prestige as having weight in the eyes of people, to carry the weight in an opinion, or to command position in people’s minds. A very good synonym would be the English word relevance which means to have significant and demonstrable bearing on a matter or having relevance to a group of people. Either way, according to Paul, and Isaiah before him, the Messiah had no relevance on any matter, according to the ones who thought themselves of special importance. He did not whimper nor wine about his irrelevancy. He did not seek out a Publicist to clean up his image and give His name a little shine. He was quite content to remain irrelevant to the masses but of the utmost relevance to His disciples. He was not trying to court the favor nor applause of the general public nor his own band of followers. When they walked away, he let them walk. When he did something great for them he would warn them:
Then He ordered them to tell no one, but the more He would order them, the more they would proclaim it.
He was not looking for the fickle and often vainglorious praise of people:
Jesus, however, would not entrust Himself to them, since He knew them all and because He did not need anyone to testify about man; for He Himself knew what was in man.
Jesus is so content to remain irrelevant that even when he met with one of Israel’s most prestigious leaders, Nicodemus, he makes no big to-do about it. He meets with this leader at night and seemingly alone (John 3:1-2). He does not try to court his approval nor does he make Nicodemus feel like he is right when he is clearly wrong:
“Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied.
He is content with being true to the Truth and true to remaining of no prestige, of no magnificence, irrelevant.
Today, pastors and elders are judged by how “relevant” or “influential” they can become. Carey Nieuwhof, a former lawyer and the founding mega-church-pastor of Connexus Church in Barrie, Ontario and church consultant guru, says that the top goal for any leader in any year is to be “likable.” He says very boldly
I believe John Maxwell is right, leadership is influence. If you want to know whether you’re a leader, look over your shoulder to see if anyone’s following. If they are, you’re a leader, regardless of your title. If not, you probably aren’t, regardless of your title. Your leadership rises and falls with your influence. Period. - 5 WAYS TO SQUANDER YOUR INFLUENCE WITHOUT TRYING
The problem is that Jesus just does not qualify to be on neither John Maxwell’s nor Carey Niewhof’s leadership team. If leadership is influence, Jesus was doing everything he could to avoid it. And, by Carey’ standards Jesus took a very large mega-following (7,000 he fed) and reduced it down to 0. By today’s standards, Jesus would have never found a job in a congregation anywhere south of heaven. He was just too irrelevant. I wonder if the Jesus of the Scriptures, the one we say that we follow, is also irrelevant until some super charged, successful, influential, relevant pastor dusts Jesus off and shines him up and tries to become his publicist?
As I write these thoughts about Jesus, I am ashamed to say that for at least 5 years of my life I bought into this childish way of thinking about Jesus. I wanted him to be relevant and influential not because he was that but because I wanted to become that.
In reality, relevancy/influence has now become a litmus test of pastoral spirituality and effectiveness. This thinking does not emerge from the Scriptures nor from Jesus but from the country of death. What business does an elder or pastor have seeking relevancy when the chief shepherd was purposefully irrelevant. Relevancy will not help pastors or elders care for souls, teach them their mother tongue of prayer, guide them through death, suffering and the many trials we must undergo in this life. What is more, the more leaders invest in being “relevant” the less they can truly invest in the flock. Trying to gain prestige by wearing the right clothes, saying the right words, have the right lights and mixture of fog/smoke in the sanctuary, knowing the right people, and name dropping when needed. Many young pastors look around at their peers who are creating large churches with big crowds and multiple campuses and believe if they can replicate everything from the clothing to the messaging they too become as relevant and get the same results. And as tempting as this “replication of relevancy” theory may be it is simply a false invitation to greatness. It is a cancer that is killing the soul of the colony of heaven.
Henry Nouwen boldly spoke to the issue of relevancy when he said, “I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self” (Henri Nouwen, /In the Name of Jesus/ (Crossroads: Â New York, 1996), 17).
Apocalyptic Pastor - We must warn about what lies ahead both great peril and great love.
“We don’t change because it is a good idea; we change because we are in love or in crisis” (Richard Parrott, “Competency, Spirituality, and Core-Identity in Pastors,” Ashland Theological Journal Volume 35 35 (2003): 76.).