My hometown
suffered some recent tragedies entirely uncharacteristic of our self-image.
Whether it is a little self-deceiving to believe it, we still see Colorado
Springs as a sleepy, small town with lots of churches and conservative
Christians (though in reality we are well over half-a-million is size, and
mostly unchurched). With two “mass” shootings in the last two months, we are
forced to take a second look at what is going on in our city. The pastor is
uniquely poised to do exactly that because of what they are given to work with.
This has helped
remind me that the pastor's job is always a combination of the local and
current, and the universal and unchanging.
The Pastor’s
Job is Intensely Local
The local
congregation is a kind of focal point for the kingdom of God here on earth,
like a child’s magnifying glass used to focus the rays of the sun on a dry
leaf. The great and eternal truths of God are intensified when believers gather
together to hear the Word of God, pray, and disciple each other. The presence
of God is magnified when brothers and sisters in Christ join together to
worship. Life with Christians over a period of time reveals things that would
not be seen otherwise. The pastor learns what lies in peoples’ past, walks with
them through some of the most difficult times you can imagine, and even gets to
dedicate babies and baptize new believers. These events provide a local flavor
for the pastor that cannot be developed if he or she has their study door closed
and head in the sky. Some pastors neglect people for their study and thus miss
the beauties and developed wisdom of living with people. Some seek broad
acclaim and use their local congregation to reach the next rung in the ladder,
thus using something God intended as an end as a means for their own glory.
The best
pastors in our past were able to use their local congregation to meet the ends
of both pastoral wisdom and deepening theological acumen (think of Jonathan
Edwards on the American frontier and Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones during WWII). A
pastor, as Scripture envisions him or her, is a theologian of sorts who lives,
breathes, and works among a particular group of people in a particular setting. The local provides us with the warp and woof of daily life
and naturally affects the pastor's work. But the local cannot subsume the
universal.
The Pastorate
is Inescapably Universal
In the local
church, the pastor has the responsibility of communicating the truths of the
faith once and for all handed down to us by the saints and communicated in
Scripture. The pastor's text is (or, ought to be) the Word of God in all its
full and varied wisdom. While we live within communities that experience their
own seasons of blessing and cursing, the pastor is at their best when they
bring the universal and unchanging truths of Christ to bear upon each season.
In our
community's most recent tragedy, our congregation prayed for the loss of a
sister congregation across town and reached out to them in Christian
brotherhood, and those of us who have connections to those touched by the
tragedy are reaching out as we can. But we also must talk about Christ. When
the press of the current events seems the strongest, the church must remember
to glorify the one, true hope of us all, Jesus Christ. Our Sunday text for the
weekend of the latest shooting was Colossians 2:6-15. It was fitting for the
church to emphasize Christus Victor
on a weekend when we feel the weight of sin, and the despair into which it
leads many. We must, as Paul admonished us, avoid false philosophies about
human nature and false political utopianism, and keep ourselves rooted in the
victory of Jesus Christ.
When the church
proclaims the universal truths of Christ in an ever-changing world, we are the
most relevant and the most powerful.
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