The Insufficiency of Loving People in Ministry

It is a common thing to imagine that people go into ministry because they love people. I had a number of experiences with a variety of people in my life that led me to see the beauty of the human race. I love how creative people are. I love how people are able to create rules for society, and I am amazed how people skate right on the edge of such rules. I am humbled by the mystery and singular universe that is a human being. I really do love people.

This love for people is a common driver for people going into the helping professions. And while I cannot speak for other professions, I can address that many clergy go into the ministry because they love human beings. It is a noble and admirable reason to go into vocational ministry. However, it is also insufficient for ministry.

If pastors only loved people then there would be a shortage of clergy. The pay and benefits are not always great. The work is taxing. The emotional roller coaster that is being a pastor is relentless. Plus many pastors have as many bosses as they have people who attend the church. Loving people is a prerequisite for ministry, but it will not sustain you in ministry. Loving people is difficult to do. People are flawed and will fail you. People will bring to surface the best and the worst of life. People annoy and delight, stress and support. People are a mix of sinner and saint and sometimes a little cussing and coffee.

Loving people will is good but insufficient because no one can love people all of the time. However, if you go into ministry knowing that Jesus loves you, then you may come to find the source of strength to endure the best and worst of humanity. Just because it is a cliché does not make it any less true.

There are a lot of clergy that love people and knows that Christ loves them. However the clergy that I admire are the clergy that discover a third love, and that is the love that transforms a job into a calling. This is the love that the clergy person has for the Christ that lives in another person. The most faithful clergy I know love you and the Christ that lives in you. The most faithful clergy I know serve the Christ that lives in you so that even if you are a real jerk, their loving kindness does not cease.

Learning to love the Christ that is in the other requires that we come to see that Christ lives in each other - even the enemy, the other, the Democrat, the Republican, etc. Which brings us back to Kierkegaard’s idea that the ideal neighbor to love is a dead one.

The Tea Kettle of Liturgy

Regardless of what sort of spirituality you practice, there is a liturgy to the practice. The liturgy is a structure that the acts of the practice follow. These are easy to see in a worship service, but it is not limited to worship events. When a professional sports event begins, there is a civic liturgy that we follow. When there is a wedding there is a reception liturgy. Birthdays, start of school days, family gatherings have their own liturgies.

What is the point of liturgy? How do we know if it is “good” liturgy? Beyond the content of the worship the liturgy (the structure and order of things) serves a different function, but what is that function? I would submit that the function of liturgy is to be like a tea kettle and what makes for a good tea kettle is being able to hold the dynamic boiling water.

When people gather for worship, there are so many emotions, anxieties, celebrations, hopes and fears. The gathered body is dynamic and full of energy. This energy is neutral, but we all know that energy does not stay neutral for very long. We see an energetic group can turn into a mob and do great harm rather quickly. We also can see an energetic group to rally for a pro-social cause and build a house in 24 hours. It is the function of the liturgy to properly hold the energy of the collective body.

Like a kettle, the liturgy must be stronger than the energy of the contents. The liturgy must be able to stand through different temperatures and not shatter. It must be directional enough to channel the energy well and, if possible, be built to help the energy sing. It needs to be able to have the endurance as the energy dissipates and cools off. It consistent in its ability so that when it is time to gather the energy again, people can be confident that the energy can be properly held.

The water in the kettle does now “know” what it will become. But the water in the kettle always becomes more than it can imagine. Will it become the foundation for life-giving tea? The warmth to the cold heart? The agent to help purify or clean a wound? Liturgy does not squelch the energy of the gathered body but helps the body transform into something they could not imagine before they gathered. Something transcendent, something greater than the sum of their parts.

The worship liturgy is not there to resolve the anxiety, tension, fear or excitement of the body. The liturgy is the container that holds all of that. Too often church leaders use the liturgy to resolve the this anxiety. The liturgy is not a cure or a resolution. Liturgy is a kettle, and let us not be lukewarm.

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy - Two "Rights" Making Us Wrong

One of the ways that people talk about the divisions in the church is along a fabricated line between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. One is about having the right beliefs while the other is about doing the right actions. One elevates the head while the other elevates the hands. One wants to be sure you are able to confess the correct beliefs while the other wants to be sure you are doing the correct pro-social behavior.

It is too simple to say that those who elevate orthodoxy do not care about what you do or that those who elevate orthopraxy do not care about what you believe. It is rather that in any sort of dichotomy there will always be one that is elevated as slightly more important than the other. We may say we hold these two equally, and for the most part we do, but inevitably we will put things in a slight order. Like going to the grocery store. You don’t get the milk last because it is least important, but because that is how the store is organized.

And so, over time, the church fabricates a division between the orthodoxy and the orthopraxy. While making the case for their slightly elevated preference, a fine line is created. Over the years the line gets more and more visible and rigid to the point where now there are “camps” within the church. There are those who feel that if we do not have the correct beliefs then the church will become obsolete since you can do correct action in a lot of places. There are others who feel that the mystery of God is so vast that the narrowness of belief will turn people off to the church thus making church obsolete, so liberate people to have a wide beliefs so the church can promote the right actions of Christ.

The irony is that both approaches are much closer than they realize.

It might be thought of in this way. The Orthodox group want people to first believe the right things, then they will do the right behaviors at which point they will belong to the Church.

Conversely, the Orthopraxy group want people to first do the right behaviors, then they will come to believe the right things at which point they will belong to the Church.

In each group belonging to the Church is contingent upon having both right belief and action first.

The struggle is that Orthodoxy and the Orthopraxy camps are both correct and yet both missing the mark. Studies in psychology, sociology and anthropology (not to mention theology and philosophy) show that humans crave and need the safety of belonging. In fact humans will believe or do some very awful things in order to acquire the security that comes with belonging.

And so, this is in part why the Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy camps will always come up short. Each side has is bass ackwards. If we are interested in midwifing the kingdom of God, the repairing of the light, the restoration and regeneration of the world, and the flourishing of all, then we must BEGIN with belonging.

Beginning with belonging is not orthodoxy or othopraxy but orthocardia - having a right heart.

When we signal and show that we belong to one another, that we are safe with each other, that we care for and about one another, then we can talk about what should come next (belief or action). Perhaps more profound is that we will discover how belief and actions are too interrelated to separate out, but that is for another time.

As the world and church continue to fight about what is the right way to live or the right things to think, we will continue to grow more aggrieved and lost. We will find that the more extreme viewpoints will get greater influence. The more we build churches on “what we believe” or “how to become a member” the more we will continue to fail to meet the deep need of humanity. It is not until we abandon the need for litmus tests of word and action that we will see the right heart of Christ beating in the world.