Being a blogger/tweeter you meet the most interesting people and Nancy Rosback aka @poemsandprayers aka the writer of Just Say The Word is one of them.
Nancy has been a great encouragement to me and I am very glad that she has written a guest post for me.
I’ll let Nancy take it from here:
since i am writing a post for peter’s blog, and peter is a preacher. i thought i might be fun to talk about preachers.
not that i know a whole lot about them, but, i have wondered what it would be like to be a preacher in a church.
i would think that different churches would make the job different, and yet there must be things that all preachers can relate to.
i can just imagine what the talk would be like with a few preachers sitting around a table having lunch in a conference room. commiserating with one another over coffee and dessert about the funeral one has to speak at, while another is talking about all the june weddings coming up. on the other side of the table there would be the sports talk of the season.
but, really, i wonder about the job. having one’s faith and job be the so intertwined. the expectations of so many different people being tied with my faith beliefs. i just can not help but be curious how this is actually done. for one, preachers can’t just get up every sunday and take in a sermon. though, i would think that they might like to. but, noooo! they get up and do the sermon and then have meetings after that. they are expected to talk about their job at any time in any place, and expected to be a walking talking faith machine. nobody is like that. it reminds me of how comedians are expected to always be funny. anyway, that is what i imagine it might be like.
i know that at high calling blogs, they talk about faith or spirituality in the workplace. but, with being a preacher, that is probably not an issue. yet, maybe it is, maybe it is just like any other job when it comes to faith and spirituality….maybe even harder.
Preachers compared to comedians! That's a good one, but probably very true as far as people's expectations. The pastors must get sick and tired of it (Peter?)
Our church had a party/event last weekend (that's right, we're Presbyterians and we like to party) with a live band and all, and before too long we saw the pastor get up with his wife on the dance floor – THE PASTOR WAS DANCING! (GASP!) We all had so much fun, especially when the disco music started and we did a Soul Train line, etc etc. But it reminded me that this guy is just a guy, just like me, witha fun wife who likes to dance, and not some one-dimensional spiritual walking talking faith machine.
(PS Peter your blog site design rocks)
I think preachers, priests, ministers, those who, by any name, are called could not do their job if they were not like us, filled with the same doubts, the same yearnings, the same reaching for Spirit's hands. They, too, suffer the hope of loving and being beloved.
I wholeheartedly agree Maureen! Good points!
"Suffer the hope of loving and being beloved" couldn't be said better, Maureen. Your words and thoughts are valuable Nancy. The purity of your words, is as always, like clean rain.
Throw into that mix a preacher who has another full-time job (like me) and it gets even more interesting! You definitely feel those expectations and you don’t want to let people down, but you also just let them know as often as possible that you’re real with weaknesses, doubts, and fears. We’re all in the process. Leading the Church is not predicated on perfection (thank You, Lord!).
Great post, Nancy- thanks!
Nice to "see" Nancy here. 😉
Preachers are just people who need just as much love and grace — and friendship. That is one of the gifts of the blogosphere – community and comraderie – to be real.
Great post Nancy! As others have already said, pastors are people just like everyone else. We are not super-human or even super-spiritual. We struggle just like everyone else (I for one struggle with depression). We get hurt just like everyone else. We make mistakes just like everyone else. And we need to integrate our faith into our workplace just like everyone else. As Jason pointed out, "we're all in the process"! 🙂
Thanks for reminding me of the difficulties my pastor faces. Great post.
Wow. I love this. I just love it, Nancy. You have just humanized these men. Offered them grace. Offered us the same grace. Thank you!