50 years later, more servants are needed

On Sunday, June 29, 1958, I was ordained a minister of the Gospel of Jesus from Nazareth, who is commonly called the Christ. By denomination, I am an American Baptist. I have been the pastor of American Baptist churches in Illinois, California and Alaska for the entire 50 years. Not for a single minute have I regretted my decision to be a Christian minister.

If I had a hundred lives to live, I would want to be the pastor of a church in every one of those hundred lives.

Sunday, June 29, 2008, was my last Sunday as pastor of the Church of the Covenant, a small American Baptist church in Palmer. I plan to continue writing. I plan to continue my involvement in several not-for-profit corporations that I, along with others, have created, shaped and guided. I will not again pastor a congregation.

My purpose in writing this particular column is not to reminisce about the past, but to encourage others to take up this marvelous calling and profession.

In the kind of world in which we now live, fewer and fewer people will work their entire life in one career. Second and third careers are common. The opportunity of serving as a minister can follow a career in teaching, engineering, management or sales. In our society we have more and more retired people who need the challenge of serving God and neighbor. Young people are certainly welcome to this high calling, but there is room for a wide range of devout servants.

The person considering becoming a minister must face certain realities. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him (her) deny himself and follow me.” Denying oneself is no easy task. Self-denial is counter to our culture. To be a minister, a person must have the maturity and strength to say “My life is not about me. It is about all the others of the world.”

When Jesus called his disciples, they left what they were doing. What a person leaves to be a minister/disciple varies from person to person, but Jesus drew the lines very clearly. “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Choices must be made. No half-hearted commitment will work.

The role of a minister is that of a servant. A minister defines accomplishment in a manner that is foreign to our American society. Accomplishment for a minister is never measured in terms of power, money or position. The words of Jesus are clear. “If any of you would seek greatness, let that person be a servant of all.”

Paul from Tarsus has described the nature of the ministerial calling with clarity. He wrote, “God has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” In the work of a minister, he/she works every day to be a reconciler. Every sermon preached and every lesson that is taught has reconciliation as its goal. A minister facilitates reconciliation of people with God and people with people.

The corollary with the reconciliation task is that nowhere did Jesus give the gospel minister authority to judge, condemn or reject. Welcome, acceptance and affirmation are the tools of the pastoral trade. Grace, mercy, and forgiveness are always at hand.

In everyday life, the minister is today’s generalist. She/he is a social worker, a counselor, a teacher, a preacher, an administrator, a community activist, a friend, a fund raiser, a theologian, a scholar, a writer, an organizer. The pastor’s work is never done. Sixty-to-70-hour work weeks are standard.

Undergirding the adventure is an abiding confidence that life can be changed for the better, that good overcomes evil, that no situation is hopeless, that the life of every person is enormously valuable, that there is no one beyond redemption.

Why would I urge anyone to take up such a profession?

Not of little consequence is the number of friends that I have accumulated over the years. The variety of those friends is almost endless. But most of all, I value the words “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Those words are available to anyone who accepts the challenge of being a servant/ pastor/ minister.

The Rev. Howard Bess is the pastor emeritus of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. His e-mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.