12/17/14. CAN WE DEMYTHOLGIZE ‘CLERGY’?

BLOG 1217/14. CAN WE DEMYTHOLOGIZE CLERGY?

This Blog is something of a confession, and may get me in trouble (so what’s new?), but I have been “ordained” now for sixty years, but so help me, I cannot find any reference to anything called: clergy in any of the New Testament documents that have to do with the church! What’s even worse is being called: reverend. What healthy human being would ever want to be called such? And when someone, in a gathering of folk who don’t know me, addresses me as ‘reverend’ there is something of an invisible shield descends between us—I am suddenly someone from a different planet. O, to be sure, there is to be order in the colonies of God’s new humanity, but there is no sacralized class of persons—all are called to be priests, all are to be animated by the Spirit of God, all are to be agents in Christ’s mission in the world to “make all things new.” Jacques Ellul designates the clergification of the church as one of the major subversions of Christianity (the other being sacralized buildings: sanctuaries).

But ‘clergy’ is so widely and almost universally accepted that it is somehow audacious to question it. Leadership within the Christian community, basically, emerges from within. There are those who have a healthy grasp of the apostolic teachings, or the content of Jesus’ life and teachings. They become the teachers of others. There are models, overseers and wisdom figures/presbyters to see that no one gets lost, and that all are being formed into maturity. Alien to this is the notion that someone who attains one or more academic degrees is qualified to be ‘the’ leader (the reverend) of a community, which has all kinds of complications. I, for one, am enormously thankful for those godly scholars and teachers who are gifted to resource those of us of lesser capabilities, but the most effective of even those are the ones who are practitioners of what they teach, i.e., they are ‘people persons’ who are in communication with those who make up the rank and file of the community.

In my own quest to “get it right” I have been in process now all of these years. This clergy-thing began to dawn on me in my early career in a small church with many problems, and a dubious reputation. But in my innocence I wanted to meet the folk I had inherited, and I found that my relationship to most of them was quite un-real. I was ‘the reverend’ and they expected me to carry out the functions that were expected of church professionals. I couldn’t tune-in to that kind of arms length formal relationship. But I desperately wanted them to be formed by the word of Christ.

There was one guy, however, who kept a low profile but was from one of the older families in the church. He and I connected, and he asked me one day if I would like to go on his sales route with him and spend the day seeing what he did. I accepted. Being in the car for several hours together we covered a lot of topics, and I got to meet his customers—but then on the way home he turned and said (surprisingly): “You really believe in God, don’t you?” When I pushed him on what provoked that question, it turned out that most of the church members didn’t honestly have a very high regard for the authenticity of the pastors they had encountered. That began a relationship that saw him become a quiet and positive influence in refounding that congregation through some fascinating decisions (Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church).

It also raised the question with me: Who does the Christian community take seriously as a follower of Jesus? Who do they look to as teachers and models and encouragers in their pilgrimage as Christ’s disciples? Who do they have who can say with Paul: “Be imitators of me even as I also am of Christ?” I began to pray from that point that God would make me that kind of a disciple-making pastor: to coach, model, and teach the meaning of discipleship. It is in this quest that I have a desire to redefine the church’s leadership in terms of its function in the mission of God—hence to demythologize the whole concept which we call: clergy.

[If these Blogs are provocative to you, suggest to your friends that they subscribe.]

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge