Friday, November 18, 2005
A Question For My Pastor Friends
I was reading a critique of one of the more publicly visible pastors the other day and one of this guy's apologists said, "He's really a nice guy in person, that's just his public, political persona." That set me to thinking.
We all have personas -- different "faces" that we put on for different settings. I see this more in pastors than I do in other people. Many pastors I know feel this burden for public perfection, or at least near perfection that makes their public persona very different from their private persona.
Is that legit?
If ours is a faith of grace and transformation, should not a pastor exhibit both in abundance? Should grace not be evident in his/her falabilities? Should not transformation be evident in the fact that those falabilities are in different areas and perhaps less severe than the rest of us?
I am told all the time that am pretty "out there." I don't have much in the way of personas -- what you see is what you get. If I am totally frank, I find the idea of personas dishonest. But, I have also suffered because of my "out there" nature. Sometimes I wonder if it would not be helpful to develop a persona of some sort. Because I think it dishonest, it has been known to be a source of friction between myself and pastors, thus my question.
How about some feedback.
We all have personas -- different "faces" that we put on for different settings. I see this more in pastors than I do in other people. Many pastors I know feel this burden for public perfection, or at least near perfection that makes their public persona very different from their private persona.
Is that legit?
If ours is a faith of grace and transformation, should not a pastor exhibit both in abundance? Should grace not be evident in his/her falabilities? Should not transformation be evident in the fact that those falabilities are in different areas and perhaps less severe than the rest of us?
I am told all the time that am pretty "out there." I don't have much in the way of personas -- what you see is what you get. If I am totally frank, I find the idea of personas dishonest. But, I have also suffered because of my "out there" nature. Sometimes I wonder if it would not be helpful to develop a persona of some sort. Because I think it dishonest, it has been known to be a source of friction between myself and pastors, thus my question.
How about some feedback.
