episode 3

​I get a number of requests each year to consider applying for the role of "fill in the blank" church's next Senior Pastor. Obviously they've never read the scouting report on me. They have no idea what they might be getting into had I ever decided to set aside everything I've experienced these past 10 years and taken a shot with their congregation. Even though I have no desire to ever get back into what I know they are obviously looking for, I do make it a point to always read the description of the position. It's become sort of a pastime for me. The more I do this, the more I become convinced that there is some template out there, possibly even a biblical mandate that I've missed that is specifically for pastoral searches. They are always looking for someone who will "Preach the Word". I don't even know what that means. Well ok, I do know what that means, or at least what they think they mean by it. Sometimes it is worded as "biblically sound teaching". They tend to mean the same thing. It can often be code for "teach us what we believe the Bible is saying", in the way we are most comfortable with. In that context the one who preaches is not allowed the space to wonder, to ask questions, to explore other possibilities or even mention what opposing views might exist in "those other churches", and rarely settling for a vulnerable "I don't know". Personally, I have always had the good fortune of being allowed to more honestly teach what I believe to be my own understanding of the text. Of course this includes what other scholars and people much smarter than myself have come to discover and understand about certain texts. The hearer has always been free to disagree of course, and more than welcome to share the same space within that disagreement. The difference between then and now is that these questions and disagreements are invited into a conversation while the teaching becomes collaborative effort of discovery. Some have deemed it less than as well as a surrendering of pastoral "authority". I actually have come to see it as more than and a sharing of whatever authority I may have. Trust me, I've been doing this for 30 years, it takes more preparation and confidence to teach as dialogue than it does to teach as monologue. You have to be prepared to think on your feet and bravely wander in to the unknown of open conversation. In years past, someone in the congregation may have disagreed with some or all of my message, but when they file out in the "liars line" ... the one people get in after the service to tell you what a great message it was ... they rarely mention those disagreements. 
The table changes all of that. Being at the table gives everyone a chance to weigh in, a chance for everyone to listen, to empathize, to be uncomfortable. At our table we all are given space to journey within the text alongside others on the same journey. They are all teachers, and I get to be their pastor in ways i've never been able to experience or appreciate.