This may be the most aptly named Clergy Comment as I will be commenting on a clergy.
After 13 years, I would like to announce I will be retiring as a pastor's kid. Or perhaps more accurately, my father, Brian Joyce, is finishing his last Sunday service at Central Fellowship Baptist Church after serving as senior pastor there for nearly 13 years. I have a few comments for this specific member of the clergy, which may serve as encouragements for anyone else. These reflections are from a pastor's kid on some of the lessons learned watching my dad in ministry.
I learned from my dad's transparency. I think I may have avoided the pastor's kid syndrome of harsh rebellion because my dad did not hide his imperfections. The same person preaching on Sunday could be found at home in the afternoon (after a well-deserved nap of course). While religious hypocrisy is by no means isolated to pastors, individuals in ministry face a great pressure to live a double life. I witnessed an earnestness to continue to be healed and grow in character, not to believe he had already arrived. As I have begun a life in ministry I am grateful to not have to have the appearance or pressure of perfection, as if everyone else needed Christ's grace except us. We'll cling to that old rugged cross together.
I learned the importance of the good news of Jesus. In harder times of ministry I have asked my dad why he was still a pastor. There are easier jobs that pay more and don't creep into your home life as easily, but my dad has this deep belief that people need to hear the message of the Creator to His creation. He believes the grace of Christ is good news for everyone. However messy the church gets, being full of the Creator's imperfect people, the love of God never fails people. I have learned in a society of spiritual poverty and hunger, there are people that God will call out of their comfort to invite others to the feast of God.
I have appreciated my dad's desire to be my friend. The majority of Friday mornings you can find my dad and I at Starbucks. He has made an intentional effort to regularly be together to talk and pray. Every person in ministry will fight and learn the tension of ministry and family. I know because my dad has grown in this, that I have a leg up in wisdom.
Thanks to my dad, and all clergy, as they seek to be leaders who have not arrived.
May all of us find the humility to, "Be still and know that (He) is God" (Psalm 46:10).
