Pastor Schwartz reflects on "Clergy Myths"

Clergy Myth Busters

I recently heard an "all clergy are…." comment and found myself chuckling. It brought to mind the many clergy myths I have heard through the years. You may have wondered about some of them, like….

Clergy only work on Sundays. Of course, if you are Catholic, you know better. Priests say Mass every day. But what about Protestants, do they do anything? Well, yes, they conduct funerals and weddings. They visit people when they are in the hospital or nursing home, and will see them at home when they are not able to get to Church. They attend community meetings and Church meetings. They do all kinds of mundane administrative things. They even answer the phone sometimes when people call the Church. They pray. Oh, and yes, they write sermons. When I was in seminary, professors would tell us to expect to spend 1 hour prep time for every minute of sermon. That means that a ten minute sermon would take 10 hours to write! And don’t forget those classes for kids and adults; they take time to prepare, too. So, many clergy work 6 day weeks, often at more than 50 hours.

Preachers are good at talking people "into" and "out of" things. In my first parish a young man came to me one Sunday after worship and asked me to go home with him. He explained that when he left that morning his father was sitting at the breakfast table with a loaded gun in his hand threatening to shoot himself. He thought I could talk his father out of it. While I was honored by his confidence in my ability, I was pretty sure that this was not a situation in which I wanted to test my skills. I told him that the best thing to do, if when he got home his father was in the same condition, was to call the police. Crisis management, negotiating skills, or counseling skills, are not something that just come automatically for clergy. For most they are learned, developed, and are most effective when there is some kind of pre-existing trust.

Ministers just pray all the time. Ministers do pray, but I don’t know any that pray all the time. There is a spiritual discipline that teaches a method of constantly praying throughout the day, but I don’t personally know of anyone who uses that technique. Honestly while prayer is an important part of the life of a minister, I have known lay people, regular folks, whose prayer life was probably more commendable than mine. Sometimes people have teased me about having a "pipeline to God" just because I am a minister, but you know, God wants us all to have that pipeline.

Pastors are judgmental. Well, yes, there are some who are, yes. But not all of them. I am where I am today because years ago a pastor related to me, in a non-judgmental manner. Not all pastors are judgmental.

They are all wealthy hypocrites. If you watch much religious television you probably see clergy who are making a lot of money. Some even believe and teach that it is God’s will that they be wealthy and that it is God’s will for everyone to be rich. That is a minority, but a very visible one. So the normal, parish pastor? Wealthy? Nah.

Hypocrites, yes. Merriam-Webster defines a hypocrite as "a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings." Well, that is me. Every Sunday morning in our worship we begin with "Confession and Forgiveness." In that ritual we acknowledge that we have sinned, or another way of putting it is that we are hypocrites. It is not that I/we are intentional. It is not that we are thumbing our noses at God or others. No, it is just that we have strong, high values, and we don’t always live up to them. We try, but we don’t always make it. But we also trust that God sees inside our hearts and knows us, knows what our intentions are, and we can trust God with that.

Well, those are my "Myth Busters" for today. If you have some you’d like me to think about, drop me a line at hopeforesthills@aol.com.

Blessings,

Susan C Schwartz, Pastor

Hope Lutheran Church of Forest Hills

(Sunday Reflections for September 1, 2013)