There's an email joke making the rounds that's a memo to Jesus Christ from “Jordan Management Consultants”. It reads:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them underwent our battery of tests, and we have not only run the results through our computers, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocation aptitude consultant.

 It is our opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the enterprise you are undertaking. We recommend you continue to search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability

Here is a summary of our findings:

Simon Peter is emotional, unstable and given to fits of temper.

The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interests above Company loyalty.

Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.

We believe it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been black-listed by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.

However, one of the candidates shows great potential. He's a man of ability and resourcefulness; he is a great networker; has a keen business mind; and has strong contacts in influential circles. He's highly motivated, very ambitious and adept with financial matters. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your Controller and Chief Operating Officer.

The email goes onto say:

What if Jesus had chosen the twelve apostles based on the modern methods of leadership selection? Most never would have had a chance.  Jesus chooses people not for who they are, but for what they can become in Him.

We see this understanding of leadership within the church reflected in this mornings scripture readings.

King Josiah is praised higher than any other king in the Old Testament—more so than David or Solomon. Josiah was the perfect king! The text tells us he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and did not succumb to the pagan ways of his predecessors. Josiah and the people of Israel renewed their commitment to the Covenant. Yet he died on the battlefield fighting the Egyptians. The perfect king could not save his people.

In our epistle reading Paul tells us neither he or Apollos are anything, for God is the one who gives growth to a person's faith, so don't get so enamored with either his or Apollos pastoral leadership.

And in today's gospel lesson Jesus is talking about how ripe, how ready people are to hear the good news of salvation, how God has already planted our longing for communion with God in our very DNA and we pastors are just the laborers gathering the fruit. What special skills are needed to harvest fruit? Any laborer called by God will do.

So why then are we so concerned about the qualities and characteristics in our next pastor?

I share with you another email joke. This one about the perfect pastor.

The perfect pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes, condemns sin roundly, but never hurts anyone's feelings.

The perfect pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a sensible car, and donates $30 a week to the church.

The perfect pastor is 29 years old, but has 40 years experience.

The perfect pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, but spends most of his or her time with senior citizens.

Now while we are all chuckling about this, as part of First Moravian's call process each member of our joint board was asked to choose between 2 paired statements about what the ideal pastor should emphasize at First Moravian, and their answers tell us we want a schizophrenic pastor—a pastor who will emphasize one thing one day, and then the exact opposite the next day.

For example, to the question-- Should the pastor emphasize new directions for ministry OR should the pastor place an emphasis on organizing resources for current ministries? 8 board members thought the emphasis should be on new directions for ministry, and 8 board members thought the pastor's emphasis should be on organizing resources for our current ministries.

To the question should the pastor be more concerned about challenging us towards a new direction, or more concerned about keeping the church running smoothly? 8 thought challenging us in a new direction was more important, and 8 thought the pastor should be more concerned with keeping church structures running smoothly.

And the biggest mission impossible task for the pastor is 11 board members thought the ideal pastor should focus first on making the organization work before transforming the organization, but then ten thought the ideal pastor should emphasize new direction and change over emphasizing good administration and organization. Not for a single question was there anything close to a consensus answer on the Joint Board, and for most there was a 50/50 split.

Now the Wednesday night program next week is the congregational gathering for “Looking Ahead to a New Pastor.” At this gathering you will have the opportunity to give the Joint Board feedback on the characteristics of the pastor who's had the greatest positive influence on you and on the congregation. You'll also be asked to prioritize the various roles and responsibilities of a pastor. So I want to open up some conversation about while on one level, we know that pastors are called by God, and that scripture clearly shows it is God working through the pastor that makes him or her “effective,” we still have contradictory and widely varying expectations that guarantee whoever the next pastor is he or she will not live up to all of our hopes and expectations.

In your answers to the survey you will complete next week—and by the way, if you miss Wednesday night, there will also be copies of the survey in the vestibule you can pick up and fill out through the end of October. In completing this survey, many of you will place good preaching and worship leadership skills at the top of the list for qualities you want in your next pastor– most all members do. From there the consensus drops. Those who pay attention to our finances will check the category that says good on fund raising and stewardship. Those who are oldest may want a pastor who regularly visits shut ins and the sick. Those who have been deeply wounded by another person will want a pastor with good counseling skills. A few will call for an evangelist, others for a charismatic leader and we all enjoy pastors with a good sense of humor who love children. Eventually the joint board will tally up your opinions, combine your similarities and mail your dream candidate profile off to the Provincial Elders Conference. And then the joint board will begin to hear about and meet real human beings and they will have to figure out what really matters.

But let's imagine you call Pat as your next pastor. (We'll keep Pat nice and generic.) Pat seems to fit the major needs you have identified, Sundays are going well, the sermons are good most weeks and Pat hits a homer just often enough to keep those expectations up. But after six months or so someone starts looking at the numbers. Well, no, new people really haven't joined; well, no, we're still not meeting budget and to be perfectly candid Pat doesn't do all the things a pastor really should do.

We start saying the honeymoon's over. Actually, what's happening is we are getting clearer about all those expectations we have that are remaining unfulfilled. All the contradictory expectations present among you that Jesus Christ himself, could not fulfill.

I offer you a different expectation for the pastor to ponder and pray about. It's really a totally different mindset about expectations than what our culture, the powers of this world teach us. A new wineskin of expectation that will hopefully lay the groundwork for ministry here that is inspired and nurtured by the Holy Spirit. Here it is so listen up!

The single most important expectation you could have of your pastor is that he or she is a red hot lover: a red hot lover of God, a red hot lover of the church, a red hot lover of humanity, and a red hot lover of the Word of God.

If your new pastor loves God – and most will - since there's not enough money in this line of work to draw in those who don't – then that is the beginning of their being centered in God. And flowing from their love of God will hopefully be the awareness that it is our desire to fulfill the Great Commandment that motivates our behavior as pastors. When a preacher gets lost in preaching the law-- you must follow all these rules, you must live in this way, you must believe only in these things,-- then we the listener begin to feel less and less acceptable to God. The good news of Easter is that Christ has done the work of salvation and redemption. Christ has fulfilled the law and draws us toward God. We are loved by God simply because we exist. And when we see and hear and experience that love within the community of faith, then we will grow in our love and we will become more Christ-like and more able to hear the voice of our Savior and Chief Elder calling.

This leads me to Pastor Pat being a lover of the church. There are many ministers who love God and who love people but they don't really think too much of the institutional church. A good case can be made that the church today is not really what Jesus had in mind 2000 years ago. However, you have every right to expect your pastor will love this congregation. Not every one of your idiosyncrasies, but you have the right to expect your pastor will find real joy in the nature and pace of ministry here.

Next to the family unit, this community called First Moravian Church is the place where we learn how to live in love, what loving behaviors look and feel like, what it means to be able to disagree and even fight, but forgive and stay in communion.

My next hopeful expectation for you and Pastor Pat is that you will love each other. New loves begin in climates of openness and trust. If Pat comes to you as one who trusts others and finds in this place a real openness to his or her ministry and gifts, and less criticism about the gifts he or she does not have, then your mutual love will prosper and grow. If Pastor Pat feels that his or her efforts are appreciated that will go a long way in replenishing their well of energy so that they are ever-renewed in ministry here.

I see you care for and enjoy one another as you eat and work together. You come down here and spend what few free hours you have doing the work, making the ministries of this congregation possible. In your own way you each express your love for this church and one another.

You will be blessed if you freely offer your love and good will to your new pastor and you allow that pastor to show you the ways he or she also expresses affection. I suggest if your pastor truly loves you then he or she will work to find a way to express that love. The reality is we do not all express love in the same manner, in the same love language, and that is the source of endless relationship conflicts. Some of us give gifts, send cards with I-love-you intentions. Some can say it out loud. Some mow lawns and work hard to pay the bills as a sign of faithful love. Do not think that all pastors express their love in exactly the same way either.

The reason I find love to be a value above good preaching skills, above administrative and motivational skills, above all else is because I know what love does to our relationships, and I bet I'm not the only one here who knows that to be true..

The women's singing group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, has a song called "No Mirrors in My Nana's House." One of the singers explained how this song was created. One of her friends was telling her about growing up in a very poor neighborhood in her grandmother's house and she said, "You know, in my nana's house there were no mirrors."

Her friend asked her, " How did you know what you looked like?"

"Well," she said, "My nana told me. Every morning I would get up, get dressed, comb my hair, and then I would go to nana and I would say, `How do I look?' And she would tell me. She would tell me I was beautiful. She said my skin was smooth and golden brown, kissed by the sun, and she said my eyes shone like silver moonbeams. In my nana's house, there were no mirrors, so I saw myself through my nana's eyes who loved me, and the beauty of everything was in her eyes."

When our eyes glow with love and our ears are tuned with love and acceptance as the preacher proclaims, we will hear much more than when we listen with steam coming out of our ears because the pastor is not fulfilling all our expectations.

It matters how we care for one another. If you really want the next pastor to succeed in this place, then pray today and every day, “Open my heart, O God, so that I can love the next pastor unconditionally.” I ask that you pray for the new pastor to open his or her heart as well, because if that pastor also loves you, I am sure that together you will follow Our Chief Elder, and journey together into God's great love.

Top