Calling all pastors out there. You're much needed to plant, lead, and develop churches. It seems that people nowadays have a different lifestyle, philosophy on life and baggage galore. Where are you guys? (Or gals?)
Yes I did state on my earlier entry that ultimately it's up to us to lead ourselves in all areas of our lives including spiritual. I still stick by that statement. However there seems to be a need to get butts in the seat of centers everywhere to worship and be empowered. Yes as a graduate of one of the pioneer LGAT personal development companies, I use that word a lot. "EMPOWER."
Then again...
Who came up with this weekly meeting at church? Why attend church at all? What is the purpose of going to church? Within the church, what is the purpose of the pastor? Maybe before I even make a call out to recruit new pastors, I should clarify the purpose of both the church and pastor. This is not just going out to the Christian church per se, any and every center of worship.
When I traveled to Asia for the first time in my life courtesy of The Salvation Army, we'd have meeting among the Service Corps team. One of my teammates would lead prayer in her version of humility:
"Dear Lord, who are we, these dirty rags that You called us to serve You in this capacity of reaching out to our ancestors for You?"
I didn't find it too inspiring and empowering to refer to myself as a "dirty rag." In fact, I think I reserved the bathroom immediately after meetings led by that teammate. I literally felt "dirty" and needed to bathe. Then again in humid Hong Kong, a shower was much needed. I guess what I'm saying is that pastors that I'm hoping would step up is someone who does NOT present his/herself and congregation in such a self-degrading way.
Maybe I should define what I'm looking for and expecting out of a church: it's an institution consisting of a SINCERE community of people with the purpose of building up and empowering people by acknowledging and confirming their precious and divine identity as God's children created in the image and likeness of God.
And my definition and/or expectation of the pastor in this grand scheme of things: someone who's simply there to facilitate the process.
Wait a second, anyone within that community can facilitate the process. That's true. Its just that a pastor devotes full time and beyond their commitment to facilitate. Otherwise yes, anyone from the community could and SHOULD step up and facilitate.
So does that mean we're still short on pastors? Well from my personal observation and experience, we're short on the pastors and churches out there to provide what I'm looking for. From what I'm looking for, there's a lot of bad churches and pastors out there.
Honestly, there's no point of this entry. It's a random ranting stream of consciousness that I wanted to express. This whole church hopping and visiting can be pretty tiring. I'm at that point of just saying, why NOT have a church that practices what I want practiced, believes what I been feeling all along, and creates results for those attending what they want accomplished? Is that too much to ask for?
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