The Public Role of the Pastor In The Community

[Dave Benke]

We call it "The Office of the Public Ministry."  What does that mean to us in terms of the public OUTside the sanctuary and church property?  Don Engebretson suggested this title in the thread concerning Newtown, and it's a good one, in my estimation.

In the days following September 11, I kept a diary.  As I look back eleven years later, keeping that diary was important as a trigger for me in chronicling what the public nature of the pastoral office entails in the wider community.  I would advise the Rob Morris to be doing that right now. 

Each of us has an internal "kairos" event-tape; specifics of those times are not only not forgotten but are imbedded minute by minute, sound by sound, feeling by feeling.  Several years ago I conducted a very public funeral in the community where I'm a pastor for a young man I had baptized.  Every interaction of those days seems imbedded in me, and are available on instant recall.

That to me is one of the aspects of the "public role" of the pastor in the community.  It brings with it heightened risks, rewards, visibility, vulnerability.  And yet it's the most natural extension of just getting out and about in the daily whirl of duties on behalf of the people of God to whom a pastor is called.

I begin the thread in this way because I am firmly committed to the necessary presence of the pastor in a public way in the community beyond the communion of saints in the local congregation.  That includes membership on various boards, activities that involve God's realm of the left, mingling on street corners, and appearances in court or before hearing panels on various issues, and eventually presence in events marking great celebration or tragedy.  It's all to me a piece of the same whole, which is the Office of the Public Ministry.  Your thoughts?

Dave Benke

[Buckeye Deaconess]

and eventually presence in events marking great celebration or tragedy. 

Without trying to sound insensitive to the situation at hand, the pastor that does what you suggest (and I am in total agreement with you on pastors doing these things) will have built up a reputation in the community and developed relationships to the extent that his own congregation can host these events for the community; people will actually come.  I see it time and again in disaster ministry.  The best pastors I know are "down with the peeps," meeting them where they are at (even in the seediest places in town). 

[George Erdner]

Until I started participating in here, and was first exposed to Missouri's understanding that one is only a pastor if one has a parish, this question would have left me scratching my head. Before I encountered the idea that a pastor was tied to his parish, and that calls only came from parishes, I had a totally different concept of what being a pastor meant. My earlier understanding was that a pastor was to the spiritual health of all of God's people as a physician was to the physical health of people.


A pastor tended to peoples' spiritual health by preaching the Gospel, administering the sacraments, and helping and counseling those in need. Just as a physician usually has a practice of "his" patients, a pastor has a congregation of "his" closest flock. But pastors and physicians should also be willing and eager to help anyone who needs their services regardless of how they are. That includes being proactive in reaching out to those who need help rather than sitting back in their pulpits or offices waiting for those in need to come to them.


From all I've read in here from LCMS pastors, I've come to realize I was wrong about all that.

[John_Hannah]

I begin the thread in this way because I am firmly committed to the necessary presence of the pastor in a public way in the community beyond the communion of saints in the local congregation.  That includes membership on various boards, activities that involve God's realm of the left, mingling on street corners, and appearances in court or before hearing panels on various issues, and eventually presence in events marking great celebration or tragedy.  It's all to me a piece of the same whole, which is the Office of the Public Ministry.  Your thoughts?

Dave Benke

AMEN!!! I can't image being a pastor and not being involved in public affairs and events. The people of the church also expect it.


Peace, JOHN

[Charles_Austin]

If the pastor is not seen and known in public events, community celebrations, town council meetings, Fourth of July parades, ecumenical and interreligious Thanksgiving observances, and walking on Main Street (if there is a Main Street) that pastor is not doing their job.
And in those public arenas, our job is not always to play the trump card, be the clean-up hitter to make sure Jesus is mentioned, or to pat the heads of the others and say "That's nice, but I got the real deal."
Sometimes our job is to be there, be known, be communal, and be quiet.

[Dave Likeness]

My parish knew that I loved sports and soon I was
getting invitations for the invocation and benediction
at the local high school athletic banquets from the
superintendent.  I attended many baseball, football,
and basketball games at the high school.

But the real involvement came when two football
players were killed in an auto accident.  The football
coach called me by phone and asked me to come to
a gathering of grieving parents and players on a Sunday
afternoon.  The people knew me and trusted me as
I prayed with them and counseled them.

The following Monday, the coach asked me to come
to the football practice and pray and counsel  with
the team.  This high school only had 1,400 students
but later I started a Fellowship of Christian Athletes
chapter for both boys and girls.  I felt that the Lord
could use me and my sports interests to share the
Good News of Christ.  There were 25 churches in our
city and each parish had a role to play in the community.

[Mike Gehlhausen]

If the pastor is not seen and known in public events, community celebrations, town council meetings, Fourth of July parades, ecumenical and interreligious Thanksgiving observances, and walking on Main Street (if there is a Main Street) that pastor is not doing their job.
And in those public arenas, our job is not always to play the trump card, be the clean-up hitter to make sure Jesus is mentioned, or to pat the heads of the others and say "That's nice, but I got the real deal."
Sometimes our job is to be there, be known, be communal, and be quiet.

I'm sorry.  I intended to be quiet.

But I can't.

Of course, a pastor should have a role in the community. He should take part in public-private efforts like the Nehemiah Project and other faith-based initiatives.   I'll even say that he can offer an invocation to open meetings or work days for such efforts if he is the only one offering the invocation.

He should take part in things like food banks and disaster relief.  He should be open to providing Christian counsel and prayer to all who request it.  As with all Christians, he should always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that he has.

But he must not and should not take in ecumenical and interreligious Thanksgiving observances or interfaith prayer services in the time of disaster.  There are any multitude of ways to help and counsel at these times, and many are not within the parish halls. 

But if a Muslim or a Jew or a Sikh is also praying or offering a devotion, then no.  Those here say people understand that we don't all believe the same thing.  Perhaps.

However, I believe it is harder and harder to convince people that we are not all praying to the same God or perhaps that despite the First Commandment and Jehovah being a jealous God, that the Triune God does not look with favor at prayers and civil good works done in the name of false gods.

HE DOES NOT.

And that is offensive to our human sensitivities.  And the more we play to those human sensitivities rather than the truth, the more we weaken the understanding that it is Jesus and Jesus alone Who saves and not all of the kindest works and deep thoughts of a Mohandas Gandhi.

I leave it at "I don't know" when asked if Gandhi is in heaven.  He expressed great respect for the teachings of Jesus. It is possible that Gandhi did place his faith in Jesus even perhaps at the very last.  But it is doubtful.   Ask most if Gandhi is in heaven though and even suggest that he may not be, and you will find a fight on your hands.

Mike

[JoeEckman]

President Benke,

Good topic, especially after this past tragic event.  Also a good way to look back on the past year and evaluate our ministries.

Most of the LCMS pastors in my area are doing these things, many in different ways than you, or I might, but still. 

A few that I am familiar with: Chaplains for Fire, police, emt/ambulance crew, county jail.  Service on boards: Public health, mental health, library, park district, fire protection district, arts council, housing authority, transportation authority, downtown restoration  projects.

Volunteer opportunities: Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Various crisis pregnancy centers, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, American Heritage Girls, Sheriff's Big Buddies (localized version of Big Brother, big Sister).

Public school service: assistant coaches, FFA, FHA, etc sponsors,  field trip chaperon,  classroom volunteer.

Misc.: Community music programs (instrumental and vocal) community theater, little league, jr football, jr. basketball, summer softball, track and field associations, boxing, martial arts, gun clubs, hunting clubs.

I know of Missouri Synod pastors in my area that are involved in many of the above activities.  (BTW all of the above activities are covered.)

This is happening in communities of 30,000 or less;  including a community of 38. 
 
There is also membership in various clubs: Lions and Rotary come to mind.

Many pastors go to court when their members are on trial, I also go when youth in our community are on trial (and with their permission) sit in the courtroom to show them I am concerned about their welfare. 

I have been here at my first call for 21 years, and have seen pastors of all the other churches in town  come and go.  I meet with them, often it seems that I am serving as a mentor to some of them.  I have had interaction with the pastors of other Lutheran bodies in neighboring towns.  It seems to me that Lutheran pastors are more involved in these types of community activities than other denominations. 

I would hope that we would look back on this past year to identify missed opportunities for ministry, and also to celebrate those times when we have made a difference in someone's life.

Advent blessings,

Eckman

[Dave Benke]

and eventually presence in events marking great celebration or tragedy. 

Without trying to sound insensitive to the situation at hand, the pastor that does what you suggest (and I am in total agreement with you on pastors doing these things) will have built up a reputation in the community and developed relationships to the extent that his own congregation can host these events for the community; people will actually come.  I see it time and again in disaster ministry.  The best pastors I know are "down with the peeps," meeting them where they are at (even in the seediest places in town). 

First of all, I appreciate your and your husband's approach to parish team ministry in engagement through mercy, kindness, hanging out and participating in agencies that distribute mercy and arrange for justice.  This is exemplary.

That is productive of the "hosting" function of the local parish, whatever its denomination, and the "host" function of the person in the Office of the Public Ministry.  The pastor, and the pastor's parish, then provide hospitality (sidelight - the words "host" and "hospital" are related, and both have a very healing/positive side and a negative "host-ile" side due to our human ambivalence about dealing with strangers/"the public" - really needs a separate post) to the neighborhood.

However, that's not an exclusive claim.  It's shared with many others in the community and from the religious community who offer hospitality as well; given Lutheran propensities to privacy and reticence, our track record often trails the Methodists or Baptists or the Rotary by a long distance.  Our "public" theology and practice, though, is anchored within not only "the two kingdoms" but our primary, baptismal beliefs.

And once we are in sacramental territory, we can offer ourselves as witness through word and deed in pretty much any circumstance, even when in "strange" territory.

But for Lutherans to be in their places of worship and assembly and community activity a beacon of light for public ministry - YES! 

Catching Joe Eckman's post - AMEN!  I would add a different-ish one, and that is that it IS possible for a pastor to run for and potentially hold public office. 

Dave Benke

[FrPeters]

I wonder if the confusion in all of this is not occasioned by or a reflection of our confusion over what worship is.  For Rome worship is the Mass.  The priest may participate in other things without unionism because the Mass is what church and people think of when they think worship.  Not prayer vigils. Not prayer services.  Not interfaith services of readings and prayers.  The Pope may pray in a "service" with a Buddhist but he does not accord the words or actions of the Buddhist as equal to or the same as what he, as a Christian priest, says and does.

I remember when it was the "order of morning worship *with communion*."  As if the Mass were not the esse of worship!  The fact is that most of our people and a goodly number of our clergy do not immediately think the Mass when they think worship.  I long for the clarity of the Roman position on this.  Is it possible to pray along side anyone without presuming that prayers to the Father in Jesus' name are equal to or the same as prayers of unChristian religions?  If not, then Wisconsin's position is much more consistent and logical than our own.  If we can and it is not the Mass and not worship, then we would have much wider limits than the CTCR document allowed.

Personally, I do not see prayer services as worship in the same way the Mass is.  Anything defined as Interfaith seems to say different pray-ers, different prayers, different Gods... (big G or little G?).   Unionism is clear when the Mass is what worship is.  It is not as clear cut when the Mass is not there.

How can we clear this up until we clear up the confusion over what is worship and what is not?

[mariemeyer]

and eventually presence in events marking great celebration or tragedy. 

Without trying to sound insensitive to the situation at hand, the pastor that does what you suggest (and I am in total agreement with you on pastors doing these things) will have built up a reputation in the community and developed relationships to the extent that his own congregation can host these events for the community; people will actually come.  I see it time and again in disaster ministry.  The best pastors I know are "down with the peeps," meeting them where they are at (even in the seediest places in town). 

Kim:  There are times a pastor is confronted with disasters within months after he arrives in a  parish. He may have had time to get to know all the members of his congregation and may have also spent time becoming involved in outreach to person in the "seediest" part of town yet in a matter of days/hours he must decide how to be a faithful pastor in the midst of a community wide disaster.  Ought we not allow him to make a decision on the basis of his experience not ours?  Our experiences are often quite limited.

Also, how many LCMS churches are large enough to host the number of persons impacted by disasters that touch an entire community?   Walking in the shoes of persons whose experience is not like any we have experienced requires time, careful listening and trust that God the Holy Spirit will guide the decisions made by fellow Christians.

Senior LCMS persons who post here may recall the decision the late LCMS President Behnken had to make during the closing days of WWII. Ought he, on a public platform,  pray with other Christians for the end of the war and the safety of American soldiers?  This discussion has been with the LCMS for many years. It is well that it continues.

Marie Meyer

[D. Engebretson]

You beat me to it.  I really can't improve on your list.  Personally I found myself and fellow circuit/district clergy 'plugged in' to many of the opportunities you mentioned (some currently, some in the past): fire department chaplain (three of us, me now for almost 10 years), Boy Scouts (initially because of my son, but now continuing just to serve), Optimist Club, committee at a local hospital (palliative care committee), invocation/benediction at the local Memorial Day event/ police memorial, other veteran-related events, mental health board, hospice, field trip chaperone, conducting chapel services at the local nursing home, crisis care to the high school following a tragic accident involving students, etc.  I also go to court when my people are there and even in trial.  I go to the jail.  I have served in the left-hand kingdom with people from a variety of backgrounds and faiths, and because of my presence over the last 12 years I think that the visibility of the church and her concern for the community has been heightened, and I am looked to now as a pastor who can provide pastoral care to my community when asked.  And all of this was done and is being done without any ecumenical services, which was part of my point in the previous post.  There are an endless number of opportunities to serve 'publicly' outside of/ without ecumenical worship.  Looking at my fellow clergy in my area/district, I agree that there is indeed a lot of involvement in this way. 

President Benke,

Good topic, especially after this past tragic event.  Also a good way to look back on the past year and evaluate our ministries.

Most of the LCMS pastors in my area are doing these things, many in different ways than you, or I might, but still. 

A few that I am familiar with: Chaplains for Fire, police, emt/ambulance crew, county jail.  Service on boards: Public health, mental health, library, park district, fire protection district, arts council, housing authority, transportation authority, downtown restoration  projects.

Volunteer opportunities: Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Various crisis pregnancy centers, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, American Heritage Girls, Sheriff's Big Buddies (localized version of Big Brother, big Sister).

Public school service: assistant coaches, FFA, FHA, etc sponsors,  field trip chaperon,  classroom volunteer.

Misc.: Community music programs (instrumental and vocal) community theater, little league, jr football, jr. basketball, summer softball, track and field associations, boxing, martial arts, gun clubs, hunting clubs.

I know of Missouri Synod pastors in my area that are involved in many of the above activities.  (BTW all of the above activities are covered.)

This is happening in communities of 30,000 or less;  including a community of 38. 
 
There is also membership in various clubs: Lions and Rotary come to mind.

Many pastors go to court when their members are on trial, I also go when youth in our community are on trial (and with their permission) sit in the courtroom to show them I am concerned about their welfare. 

I have been here at my first call for 21 years, and have seen pastors of all the other churches in town  come and go.  I meet with them, often it seems that I am serving as a mentor to some of them.  I have had interaction with the pastors of other Lutheran bodies in neighboring towns.  It seems to me that Lutheran pastors are more involved in these types of community activities than other denominations. 

I would hope that we would look back on this past year to identify missed opportunities for ministry, and also to celebrate those times when we have made a difference in someone's life.

Advent blessings,

Eckman

[Mike Gehlhausen]

How can we clear this up until we clear up the confusion over what is worship and what is not?

We can't.

Mike

[Johan Bergfest]

I begin the thread in this way because I am firmly committed to the necessary presence of the pastor in a public way in the community beyond the communion of saints in the local congregation.  That includes membership on various boards, activities that involve God's realm of the left, mingling on street corners, and appearances in court or before hearing panels on various issues, and eventually presence in events marking great celebration or tragedy.  It's all to me a piece of the same whole, which is the Office of the Public Ministry.  Your thoughts?

So there is no question of the bias that I bring to this conversation:
1.  I took confirmation instruction from one of the "infamous 44" and am very grateful for that grounding.
2.  I respect you for the commitment to be a faithful presence in your community and the manner in which you have followed through on that commitment and the way you have supported Pr. Morris.
3.  The conversations here and elsewhere were the catalyst for me to join the conversation on this board.

I believe that God calls us - clergy and lay - to be His servants in the place where God finds us; to be His servants as He finds us; and, to be His servants as He further equips us.

Through Baptism, God has called each of us into His family.  Our membership in the Una Sancta takes precedent over our denominational affiliation and the church is not the building in which we gather for worship.

Clergy are called to be servants of the Word.  That calling takes precedence over their calling to be servants of the denomination in which they are ordained.

All of us are called to be witnesses to God's saving grace in Jesus Christ.  At a minimum, our calling requires each of us to be a faithful presence in that place where God has found us.  Denominational "rules" ought to empower, not inhibit, that faithful presence.

[D. Engebretson]

I would add a different-ish one, and that is that it IS possible for a pastor to run for and potentially hold public office. 

With all due respect I'm not too sure of this.  Many years ago I served on a mental health board appointed by the county commissioners.  Although it was not an elected position, it was technically a position in local government. I was paid a stipend and represented the mental health needs of my community and served with county commissioners, local clergy and other public figures.  All was going well until we had to dismiss our director (for legal issues) and another therapist was put in his place.  My small community was bi-racial with a strong presence of African Americans.  The new director was African American as well.  Well, he turned out to be a poor administrator and they relieved him of his duties as well.  It created a significan firestorm in the black community, and as the only Lutheran church in the county with a bi-racial mix, I was deeply concerned with how my presence on this board might impact my parish.  As it was the storm eventually quieted down and matters returned to normal, but I vowed after that close call to avoid any elected/appointed governmental positions in the future.  The closest I come now is my position as fire chaplain, but that position holds no political influence.  My fear of a pastor holding an elected position is that is may place the minister in the middle of public controversies that have no direct relationship to the ministry, and inadvertently affect the witness of his parish.  In my case it was my witness to a bi-racial community.  Although the decision rendered by the board was not racially motivated, it was perceived as such, and this perception and my role on the board could have had a far reaching impact on my ministry not only to my immediate parish but to the broader community.