Why are pastors leaving the ministry in record numbers?
I don't think most pastors would have much trouble accounting for that. Neither would some thoughtful laypeople.
Suffice it to say that this isn't your grandfather's one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church anymore, to coin a phrase.
Instead of shepherds, guides, or representatives of authoritative tradition, clergy are increasingly seen as merchants, peddling entertainment and spiritual self-indulgence. If one's pastor does not see fit to cater to the wants of the Deified Individual (fallen nature and all), parishioners simply go down the street and become the customers of another purveyor of the same services, perhaps even if a different "brand."
It's a tough time to be a clergyman with integrity in America- or with the slightest regard for one's ordination oath. Scripture doesn't count anymore; the clearest biblical teachings are readily dismissed as "a matter of interpretation." Confessional teachings don't count, either; after all, it is a commonplace among today's religious consumers that it's more important to be a "Christian-" a term generally seen as lacking any particular and necessary content-than a Lutheran or a Presbyterian or a Catholic (!) or a Methodist or a Baptist or any other coherent theological tradition. And "pastoral authority" is pretty much a dead letter. The only authority is that of the pew-sitter and his or her fallen nature.
Integrity doesn't count. What counts is the taste of the consumer. And that, incidentally, is what is so very deadly about approaches to "evangelism" which sell out content for the same of "reaching" people who in the last analysis can no longer be helped by a faith so watered down that its essence has ben swallowed up in the process, not of proclaiming it to the lost, but of marketing it to a consumer.
HT: The Rev. Dr. Scott Murray
Suffice it to say that this isn't your grandfather's one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church anymore, to coin a phrase.
Instead of shepherds, guides, or representatives of authoritative tradition, clergy are increasingly seen as merchants, peddling entertainment and spiritual self-indulgence. If one's pastor does not see fit to cater to the wants of the Deified Individual (fallen nature and all), parishioners simply go down the street and become the customers of another purveyor of the same services, perhaps even if a different "brand."
It's a tough time to be a clergyman with integrity in America- or with the slightest regard for one's ordination oath. Scripture doesn't count anymore; the clearest biblical teachings are readily dismissed as "a matter of interpretation." Confessional teachings don't count, either; after all, it is a commonplace among today's religious consumers that it's more important to be a "Christian-" a term generally seen as lacking any particular and necessary content-than a Lutheran or a Presbyterian or a Catholic (!) or a Methodist or a Baptist or any other coherent theological tradition. And "pastoral authority" is pretty much a dead letter. The only authority is that of the pew-sitter and his or her fallen nature.
Integrity doesn't count. What counts is the taste of the consumer. And that, incidentally, is what is so very deadly about approaches to "evangelism" which sell out content for the same of "reaching" people who in the last analysis can no longer be helped by a faith so watered down that its essence has ben swallowed up in the process, not of proclaiming it to the lost, but of marketing it to a consumer.
HT: The Rev. Dr. Scott Murray
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