This is Pastor Tim’s article that appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, Oct 8, 2024.
I have been a pastor since January of 1997 when I started out as a very part time youth minister in Elida, OH. Prior to that, I worked in my home church as a volunteer, but January of 1997 was when I began working in a professional capacity. I was a Senior at Ohio Northern and a guy I worked with on campus was the son of a pastor. They needed someone to fulfill a youth ministry role and after some conversation, they hired me on for 10 hours a week to work with the kids. I worked there about a year and a half until I went on to two small churches in Fort Recovery. I spent 1998-2000 working there before going to Cincinnati for 3 years and on from there.
During the years since, I have served as pastor in many different settings. The work I did in Elida was far different from what I did in Fort Recovery, which was also different from the work I did in Cincinnati. The vast majority of the difference in my work had to do with the community’s definition of the role of a pastor. That definition is truly different in every community I have served, and it takes time to determine how that role is defined because no one tells you the expectations. Sure, they give you a job description, but it usually lists things like conducting worship, visiting the hospitals, and other obvious things.
You would be surprised at how much difference the small things make in how a community perceives the role of pastor. No one left my first Sunday at any church I have served shocked that I preached a sermon. I think they all expected that. Now, all of them were shocked at how fast I talk. That is because it takes me a few weeks to train congregations to just listen faster.
But what is a pastor? That is the big question because there is a variety of ways we are portrayed. If there is a pastor in a movie or TV show, rest assured that whatever crime was committed, it was the pastor who did it, especially if it is a white haired old white guy. According to TV Land, that is a high crime demographic. Also, pastors are usually always portrayed as money grubbing and materialistic. To counter that, I would ask you how many of you work for an organization where it is expected that you give at least 10% of your income back to your employer?
To be honest, pastors are just people like anyone else. I don’t need to tell you that St Marys is blessed with many very talented pastors who have been faithfully serving this community and their congregations for years. Their main desire is to build up the Kingdom of God by building up His people. That is the calling we are responding to when we step into these roles. To see people grow in their faith, to make their relationship with God move to a more central part of their lives is the greatest part of what we do. To see people do what Jesus asked us to do to serve the poor and engage the wider community. That is the must fulfilling thing we get to witness.
The most important thing that pastors do is we cultivate relationships with people. Christianity is all about relationships, both relationship with God and relationship within the body of Christ. Relationships are messy, but they are also what makes life the precious gift it is. The Bible’s most famous verse is John 3:16 and it starts out by saying “For God so loved the world…” That is a relationship that God had and that is why the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ happened at all is because of the relationship God had with His creation. God calls pastors out of the community of faith to nurture those relationships to the best of our ability.
We are not perfect; we have all the limitations and shortcomings of any other person. But we are people who have been called by a God who cares enough about His Creation and His Church to appoint individuals whose mission in life is to nurture and care for that relationship. It is a vital and necessary role that everyone needs to have in their lives.