Wednesday, 24 March 2010
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Pastors and Their Faith: Questions From the Washington Post
Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, writes frequently for newspapers. Think of him as a Billy Graham you don't want to piss off, because he just might knock you out. According to his most recent Facebook status update, here is the question the Washington Post wants him to address in an upcoming piece. What should pastors do if they no longer hold the defining beliefs of their denomination? Do clergy have a moral obligation not to challenge the sincere faith of parishioners? If this requires them to dissemble from the pulpit, doesn’t this create systematic hypocrisy at the center of religion? What would you want your pastor to do with his or her personal doubts or loss of faith?
I think this is a fascinating question, for a few reasons.
First, it is interesting that the question makes the leap from a pastor doubting denominational distinctives to a pastor losing faith altogether. This hardly follows, and I think that even most denominational thinkers would agree that a convert from, say, the United Methodist church to the Presbyterian church isn't necessarily doubting or losing faith.
This question is also interesting because it looks so different depending on our perspective. Most Evangelicals would cheer on a Mormon pastor who began to doubt his LDS perspective and to question those tenants in public service. For that matter, Mark Driscoll would love to hear Rob Bell begin to recant his more emergent ideas and fall back into a more traditional teaching program. He (probably?) would not call for Bell to step down.
And then there is the core question. What should the pastor do when he or she has lost faith entirely? Trudge through, as Mother Theresa confessd to doing most of her life? Step down? This is made more complicated when the pastor has a family to support?
What do you think of the question the Times posed to Driscoll? Do you see problems with the question as asked? How would you begin to answer it?
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Comments (8)
On the topic of pastors and priests in a crisis of faith: an excellent example of this is John Wesley.
By his mid-thirties, Wesley had been a parish curate and missionary to Georgia, but found himself in a crisis of faith, questioning whether his beliefs had ever been anything more than "vain words."
While in the midst of his conversion process, he told his friend, Moravian pastor Peter Boehler, about his doubts. He asked Boehler if he should stop preaching until he had sorted things out.
Boehler said he shouldn't stop preaching, but instead to "Preach faith until you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith."
Of course, a pastor in the midst of conversion or revival is in a different position from one in the midst of falling away or losing faith. Still, I think that we have to allow our clergy room for their own human doubts. Even John the Baptist doubted Jesus' anointing, and yet Jesus called him the greatest prophet born of women.
@ChrisRusso@xanga - right...and just after Jesus tells John's followers what He's done He says (Luke 7:23 and Mat 11:6) "Blessed is he who does
not take offense at Me."
I can imagine Jesus says that because when circumstances don't work out the way we expect or hope (even to the point of death as John the Baptist was)...as we're pursuing all that Jesus has for us we can be tempted to be offended. I suspect that is part of the journey...it's part of my own story.
so if a pastor DOESN'T question, wonder...not only about doctrine, but also personal faith than I wonder how vibrant their life is. I don't see accepting Jesus, ordination (and/or a denominations doctrine) is the end of the story for a thoughtful man or woman, but merely a single moment in a long lifetime journey.
Perhaps expectation of a comfortable static belief system for our church leaders is why some church's are so, so...well crusty. My experience is that following Jesus is messy...but that's where life is, eh?
While I am not sure how ALL denominations ordain their Pastors/Priests, I know that in the Reformed traditions that they must vow to uphold the teachings of their particular confessions. If they change their minds about some teaching of doctrine or fall away from the faith they are to make it known immediately to the session of the church.
If a Pastor loses his faith altogether (which is very different from having doubts btw) they should step down honorably or be removed. I mean how good would a blind Shepperd be? A Pastor who has doubts about things would be.... Human.
Plus side to being CHOG: No real doctrine.
Many great Saints had grave doubts even up to the moment of death, this does not mean they did not also have great faith.
Another excellent, and modern, example of how this situation has been handled is Scott Hahn. His story is detailed in his memoir Rome, Sweet Home. Even if you don't buy his theology his descriptions of his evolution of faith and how he handled that with respect to his pastoring and teaching is fascinating.
I WISH this would happen, haha. Okay. I would hope that any leaders at any church I was involved in would be honest with the congregation about their changing views. At the same time, even as a layperson there's a lot of pressure to keep your mouth shut and conform to the status quo. I'm sure that's magnified about a zillion when you're one of the "leaders" of a group of people with homogenized vanilla beliefs.