February 01, 2008
Hats Off
A relative asked us to deliver a belated family Christmas gift. The gift was a black wire-mesh lumbar support that slipped over the back of a chair and was held in place by elastic straps. Receiving his gift Troy raised an eyebrow and said, “So, what is this?” My husband took the lumbar support and plopping it on Troy’s head said, “It’s a hat.” Watching this exchange, two and a half year-old Lydia excitedly clapped her hands together and said, “And it fits!” Paul told the Corinthians that some are called to be preachers, teachers and administrators. “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” (1 Cor 12:29-30 NIV) I think many pastors, whether by personal desire or by delegation, are trying to wear all the church hats…and then we in the congregation clap our hands and say, “And it fits!”
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Gail;
-----Church has been so much treated as an organized program that wearing all the hats is expected of the preachers. Your preacher has rightly made this observation, also. In the past the preacher did the calling, the preacher did the Sunday school class, he was at the programs and gatherings, and his ideas were the elders’ directions (as long as the love lasted). Whatever the church was up to involved the preacher. But the trend today is towards the divestiture of all the work hats and the retention of the top-dog hat.
-----I think things were almost right as they once were. I believe the preacher should do calling, Sunday school, participate in programs and gatherings, and offer ideas to the elders (whether or not there is love.) I just do not think that his involvement needs to be the only involvement, or the directing involvement. The preacher is an inspirational leader of the church. “A leader“, not “the leader.”
-----We have made the mistake of perceiving that we have been called to the Great Commission. So church has become first about claiming to search for and save souls. But its pitiful success at it is rooted in the failure to acknowledge that we are actually first called to new life. The new life of the believers in hand is the first obligation of the church. That new life always shows itself in the production of the attitudes and behaviors expressed in the Word, when it is healthy. Then we find preachers putting on all the hats others should be putting on also, and carrying most of the load, because the spiritual health of the church has not been properly addressed. Everybody is made to think that they are at church to participate in either going out and convincing the world to repent, or for paying someone else to do it for them. Most take the latter approach, then go home feeling they have done their part.
-----But in reality, everyone should be made to feel they are gathered at the church for the support of the kindness, the goodness, the patience, the perseverance, the loyalty, honor, consideration, confession, understanding, forgiveness, and the much, much more that the new life is. The Lord taught that the point was the wares stored in the heart, for from it came the things we do. So to have a church successful at seeking the lost, one needs a collection of folks with hearts storing up what is necessary for the search. What is necessary for the search is an understanding and insight far beyond buzz phrases, mission statements, and tacky signs hung over church doors. The hearts need to be full of a genuine new life in order to peddle it around the world. I assure you, the world is savvy enough to know the plastic banana from the real one.
-----It is the preacher who is there to inspire and teach the new life. That is his hat. Yet, he is no different than the rest of us in that the Lord expects his doings to come from his heart as well. Since he has set himself before the people as the inspirational pinnacle among them, for the church to be inspired completely, his hat must look a little like all the hats everyone else must wear. And he must use them all often, because the Lord also told us that whoever would be greatest among us must be servant to all. That way, the people can be inspired by the sight of him participating in everything the church must do, since he wishes to perch at the pinnacle of the spire. Else, he needs to descend from the spire of inspiration somewhat and allow others to take up inspirational rolls as well. When the preacher realizes he is not the only one fit for the pulpit of his church, when he begins to teach and hone into others the skill of preaching, and shares the pulpit with those who do it well, then the people will begin to experience mutual participation in their own worship services, before their own eyes. And that could be the catchy attitude of the new life the church has been needing.
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