Hello all,
This is fair week in Marcus and it got me thinking about an aspect of being a pastor in a town like this. I do a fair amount of walking in the town to various things, weather permitting. When it isn’t too outrageously hot or cold, my wife and I will take a regular walk on the new trail in town. Everywhere we go, if there are small children, they all greet her and wave because they all have her as their art teacher. It is always fun to see.
Adults don’t always stop what they are doing to say hi and wave, in part because a fair amount of the adults I cross paths when when out walking are in vehicles, going about their business. I tend to wave when I can, even if I can’t really see who I am waving to. It occurs to me, sometimes, that there are probably relatively few people who cross paths with me when I am walking in town who do not know who I am, even if they don’t know me, personally.
I am, as you know, hardly a celebrity. It’s just that being a pastor in a town this size means that people will know who you are and where you are connected with, whether you like it or not. Most of the time, I don’t think that much about it. Every so often, though, I feel a certain pressure because of it. Let me explain what I mean.
Because everyone knows who I am, even if we don’t really know each other, I have to represent the congregation all the time. I have to pay at least a little bit of attention to what I am doing because anything I do will reflect on the church and the gospel. If I had a bad day and then got snippy with someone, people around town would hear about it or, even if they didn’t, it would impact that person, and not in a good way. I have to remember, every time I am out, that I am a representative of the church and of the gospel.
The thing is, that isn’t really unique to me. It may be easier to see the connection with people like me, but the same is true for every Christian in every town. In the grand scheme of things, it matters very little exactly how you behave on any given Sunday morning in the context of a worship service. In fact, in the time between the prelude and the postlude, it is hard to behave all that badly. Most people spend most of that time sitting, standing, singing, or listening. It is hard to do anything that reflects too badly on the church and gospel.
What really matters is what you do once you go out the doors, where other people can see you, where you are “just being yourself,” and life your life. What does that say about your church? More importantly, what does that say about your life of following Jesus? We may get days off from our jobs or our other obligations, but we never really get a day off from being a disciple!
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Travis Stevick