ken wilson online

A thick skin and a tender heart, that’s what you need if you’re serious about the pastor business. The thick skin will come with time and criticism. Either that, or you’ll find a different line of work. But the tender heart, oh my, that’s the one to pay attention to. I’m afraid that my deepest regrets in pastoring have to do with that. Especially in this environment where faithfulness to God is viewed through the false lens of “liberal vs. conservative.” Under this rubric the liberals are the moral softies, which means the conservatives are the hard-nosed (or posteriored) ones. But take a lesson from Billy Graham.

Billy in his youth was all fire and brimstone–or was that piss and vinegar? His “stands” were tough. But past age sixty, with every interview, we heard a softer and softer Billy. Age was working it’s magic–tenderizing his heart. The older you get the more certain you get about a smaller circles of truths.

This affects, or is meant to, your reading of the Bible, or at least your application of biblical truth in your pastoral role. It is possible to read the Bible with a hard heart. Especially those parts of the Bible that apply to the lives of others. Their moral lives, their sexual lives, their marriage and family lives.

I always find it interesting when pastors rail against moral offenses concerning which they have never experienced temptation. It’s oh so convenient a thing to do. But it’s not what Jesus EVER did. We’re told that he was tempted in every way common to humanity, yet without sinning. Which he means he felt the WHOLE weight of temptation. (The sooner you yield to a temptation the weaker it has to be.) But we non-Saviors have only been tempted in our thin slice of temptation. I for example, have never ever been bitten by the gambling bug. I can never recall a time when I felt tempted to abuse alcohol, other than the few times as young man I got a little looped, more out of curiosity than anything else. But other things–pride, gossip, well… could we just end it there? Blog confessionals can be so self serving.

I’ve never been tempted, so far as I can recall, to divorce my wife. Annoyed with my beloved, angry, stuck in a dark place, etc. of course. But not tempted to leave it all behind. When a man leaves his wife high and dry, I can be very judgmental. I can experience an anger that doesn’t work the righteousness of God.

We’re under-shepherds at most. More like sheep dogs with an eye on the master. There is one shepherd of the sheep. Our job is not to interpose ourselves, but to facilitate contact with the one shepherd. And this shepherd has a tender heart. The bruised reed he will not break, the smoldering wick he will not snuff out. A sympathetic high priest, he. Who reads his Bible as one who has been tempted in every way common to humanity.

Oh when I was young, how I wish I’d known of Billy now that he’s old and thought to myself, “What would Billy do?”

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 5:32 pm and is filed under advice to young pastors, beyond conservative-liberal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.