There are a couple of times a year that are CRAZY busy for those of us whose occupation entails church work.

Church work is a weird term… really we all do church work if we say we believe and have faith.  Belief is a weird thing.  We all believe in something… even Atheists believe that there is no GOD.  They can’t prove it.  So, it’s still a faith statement.

I digress.

As a “pastor” (I use the air-quotes for a reason I’ll get to later), the Spring is one of those times.  The ramp up to Easter is HUGE.  Easter is quite literally, I believe, the reason that anyone doing any sort of church work (paid or unpaid, for the establishment or out of love for another in the name of Jesus) does said work.  I’m not talking about the tele-evangelist who rivals Bill Gates in the payscale and knocks people down with a sweaty towel. I’m talking about the guy I know that stopped one day on his walk home from work and walked a homeless guy into McDonald’s to buy him something hot to eat on a cold night.  I’m talking about people that get their hands dirty… because Jesus did, too.  Easter is the reason people like this do things like that.

But, the “pastor” (I’ll get there) role makes it different.  We have services to plan, volunteer schedules to fill, scriptures to delve in to, and in my case, guitars to tune, songs to learn, and art to create.  I find myself looking less at how I’m helping and more at what I’m doing in major ramp up times.  In someways, it can steal Easter from me.

I’m not going to let that happen this year.

I live in the suburbs.  I’m 28 with a wonderfully understanding wife and a son whose smile could outshine the sun.  I have it pretty easy.  There aren’t a lot of homeless people sitting on corners around me here.  But, I can love.  I can be… here… in the moment… looking for the Holy Spirit to move in HIS way, HIS time and in my life.

Why the air-quoted “pastor,” you ask?  Two reasons:

1. My grandfather is a retired pastor.  He used to hate it (I’m sure he still does) when people called him Reverend.  I asked him about it one day and he said it was because the title had taken on such a weird connotation with so many people that with them saying it to him, it was as if they were assuming that (A) he had it all together and (B) that he was judging them because of (A).  I think “pastor” has moved to this point as well.  Preacher, pastor… it’s all the same to me.  I do not have it all together.  And, I hope I never judge people that way… not to mention knock people down with sweaty towels.

2. There’s also the philosophy that we’re all “priests” of the kingdom by the way we live if we believe (1 Peter 2:9).

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

If I believe this, then my title of “pastor” doesn’t mean anything more than your title as stay-at-home mom, or CEO, or chemist, or teacher, or librarian… it just means that I work for a church… and I can officially/legally marry people.  We were all created to be where we are.  And, if we believe we’re called to “declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  I would suck at being a CEO, teacher, librarian, and especially a stay-at-home mom… for one obvious reason… but being a chemist might be fun… but I’d suck at it, too.

I was made to work for the church.  It’s pretty clear.

And, yet we are all priests…
Even though we’re broken, wrecked people that don’t have it all figured out…
Especially because we’re broken wrecked people that don’t have it all figured out…

+PJT