I think it was the US Army that used to recruit with the slogan "It's the toughest job you'll ever love". It's a good slogan, you can see why they chose it.
The thing is, I think I've heard a lot of other careers described with similar sentiments; pastoring, teaching, counseling, social work, nursing,...
At the risk of causing offense to a lot of people I really like and respect, I think many of those jobs really aren't that tough. At least they don't have to be.
I've seen some people in most of those fields who are really not excellent at what they do. The basic processes or systems of the field are sound enough that if you just follow along it works out a lot of the time. It's still a lot of work in most cases, but maybe not as incredibly hard as we tell ourselves.
That's not meant to suggest that a lot of people in these fields are coasting and generally incompetent; just that excellence is pretty rare.
Before I became a pastor, and certainly in my first few years of it, I bought into that. I had this sense that my role was incredibly difficult and I had to employ all my energies to fulfill the expectations. I was partly right I guess. It did take everything I had in me to try to meet the expectations.
As time went by I realised that I could be a whole lot more effective if I stopped trying so hard and gave up on the idea of being a great pastor; just accepted the role of being myself as best I can.
Of course it didn't turn out exactly as I hoped since I'm not a pastor anymore, so I guess I'm not one of the excellent ones.
Still, I really don't regret it. There were people who really wanted me to just play the part of pastor the way others did, and I refused. I couldn't feel right about that.
Bottom line is this I guess (after this rambling rant); there are lots of fields that are well developed enough that mediocre is actually pretty good. The only way to find out how capable we really are is to step outside the system and try something risky. In my case it didn't work out, our church plant closed and I'm going to be doing something else for a living for a while at least. But I'm glad to not be playing along.
p.s. I'm not saying everyone has to do what I did or that people who don't are mediocre. But if you're annoyed reading this and wondering if I've got you in mind as I write, you can feel free. You're probably wrong about my opinion of you, but if it makes you sincerely ask whether you're excellent or mediocre it's worth it to have you ticked...
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2 comments:
I think Im leaning towards 'being me' with the realization that I could never be a 'great pastor' in the traditional benchmark of success version.
There seems to be something among evangelicals that promotes the idea that one is a failure if they've been "in ministry" and then leave that role to do something else. Unfortunately, a lot of decisions that are made about ministry these days have to do with politics and money rather than about hearing God's voice. That said, I think your change in role isn't at all about your level of competency. Your usefulness to God isn't finished but how and where you serve may look different. This has been one of the hardest things for me to come to grips with because I was entrenched in the traditional thinking of what "success" ought to look like, until it was ripped out from under me. I'm glad you've got the opportunity to explore new ways of serving HIM!
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