Being Available in the Community: A New Way of Pastoring

April 19, 2015 Roland Kuhl 0 Comments

I have pastored in traditional churches for a lot of years – 20 years in fact – and I never felt quite at ease in that context. At one point I left the pastorate because I realized the way I was pastoring was actually doing harm to the people I was meant to care for – and as it goes, when you harm others, they hurt back. After that experience I spent 15 years outside of a church pastorate, kind of wandering my own wilderness, trying to discover a new way, a different way to be with people as their pastor. And though I found a community, which gave me permission to pastor in another way, there was still something that did not really fit.

And, here’s why.

The traditional way of pastoring is that a church pays the pastor to be their pastor and there is a lot of things that need doing to “run” a church. There is a whole business involved in running a church – and no matter how much I experimented with a new way of pastoring, there was still an aspect of “running” the church, doing the business of church. I did not mind so much in doing that, yet there was a sense that it kept me from the people I was supposed to walk alongside with. When I first started attending the church, which I now pastor, I came not as a pastor, but as a worshiper. My wife and I were accepted; we connected with people, we were becoming engaged and involved. But then, when they figured out that I had been a pastor (and they needed a pastor), they invited me to be their pastor. And when I said yes, I noticed that our relationship changed – as if a “wall” began to be erected between us – because I was no longer one of them as their pastor.

I have always been uneasy with that. Maybe that’s why Jesus never became a rabbi of a synagogue, or a pastor of a church – something happens that disconnects you from the lives of ordinary people. Well I got tired of that and so, I’ve stepped outside of the church – because in some ways I am done with church as well – at least the way church is being done in North America. I’ve stepped outside of church to exercise my gift of pastoring with people who need someone who can come alongside them as a pastor to guide them spiritually, to help them in times of grief or other life transitions – as one who is one of you.

So, I am discovering a new way of pastoring once again – where I am with you in your communities – without the baggage that comes along with going to church – programs, requests for donations, and feeling that you’re there to make a pastor or leader’s ministry successful. Pastoring in the community, pastoring outside the walls of the church is to walk alongside you in such a way that the focus is not on my ministry, but rather realizing that my ministry is you – to walk with you, helping to connect you with God, helping you to discover where God is leading you, so that your life might have more meaning. It may involve you connecting with other people who will walk alongside with you as well – so that you can discover the ways of God together – but not in a way that is defined by church as it is today in society.

So, Community Pastor is about a new way of pastoring in the community. A new way of realizing that ministering in the way of Jesus puts people first, rather than church programs or budgets. It’s about helping people to become part of what God is doing in the world; its about connecting with others who want to be part of what God is doing as well – in the places where we live, work, play – in our everyday lives.

So, drop by one of “office” locations and sit down for a while to chat over a cup of coffee – we’d love to talk with you to see what God is doing in your life and perhaps walk with you for a while helping you discover all that God desires for you.

Peace,

Pastor Roland