I don't mean to say that Christian pastors are liars or that they don't do a lot of good and help a lot of people. But pastors are very often also keepers of institutions, and their institutional roles often mitigate against bold, truth telling. Pastors have to be politicians in a sense. They have constituencies that they need to keep reasonably happy. After all, they must convince members of these constituencies to volunteer and give money.
I follow a lot of pastors on Twitter. This may not be an accurate generalization, but I have noticed that those who sound the least like politicians are pastoring very small congregations or no congregation at all. Some of them can be shrill, and a few might do well to develop a bit more political savy. But by and large, they are refreshing. Which is not to say that I feel compelled to emulate them.
The truth is that I'm frightened to be like them. Regardless of how convinced I am of God's will, I worry what might people in my congregation think if I took an overly bold stand on some issue. Perhaps I am short changing my congregation in the process, but my career worries, my fears, still constrain me.
Jesus said, "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops."
Have no fear of them. Jesus is of course speaking of those who might arrest and put to death his followers, just as they will do to him. My fears are pretty tame ones by contrast. But still they have a power over me.
In the opening of the biblical book of Revelation, each of the seven churches to whom the letter is written are addressed invidually. (Revelation is largely misunderstood as fortelling the future if you can somehow break its code. But in truth it is meant to urge churches under great stress to remain faithful. Its "predictions" are of a general nature, the promise that faithfulness will, in the end, be rewarded, that evil will fall and righteousness will prevail.) The writer tells each congregation of problems it needs to correct, and he seems to save his greatest disappointment for the last congregation mentioned, the one at Laodicea. "I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth."
That sounds to me like we would be better off being bold, even if we sometimes got it wrong. And those poitically unsavy, sometimes shrill, very bold pastors I follow on Twitter will certainly never be accused of being "lukewarm."
Lord, help me find my voice. Help me speak the truth.
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