The Face

 

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that I am on an adventure to really understand and embrace God’s creation of the Body of Christ. Last night was another of my almost sleepless nights as I pondered and prayed, trying to understand God’s leading. Whereas “I” thought understanding of the Body would begin by coming into a real knowledge of the various parts and their giftings and how they fit together, I feel I am actually being started at the opposite end of the story. I have this gut feeling that it is imperative that I understand the meaning of the Whole before I view the parts.

When you think about a human physical body, it is mind-boggling how wonderfully complex it is. I remember taking a physiology class that made me think over and over “How can anyone NOT believe there is a Creator God – this couldn’t have just happened?” The body is so complex and yet so finely tuned to function amazingly as each part does its part. Every part needs to be connected in a certain way and EVERY part needs constant blood flow to keep it alive. Blood flow is imperative- restrict the blood flow to any part and it will begin to die rather quickly. When I apply this physiology knowledge to the spiritual Body of Christ, the first thought that hits me is “If connection and blood flow is so imperative for a part to survive, why do we have a tendency to separate a part of the Body from the rest?”

Before I expand on that, I want to give a little back story. A friend once defined me (in her eyes) as an elbow in the Body of Christ. Her reasoning was that the elbow is a place of support as we rest our head and think and ponder; the elbow also, by its bending, aids in the process of bringing nourishment to the Body. If I understood her words correctly, she was saying that she sees me as a safe place of rest and a steady support for people who are tired or needing to work things through; she also sees me as someone who works to nourish others in the Word and in Christ. Her words were an encouragement to me and they also stimulated my thinking of others and their giftings – how do they correspond to a body part? Well, anyone with the gift of pastoring is, in my mind, a face. After all, the face has the eyes to look over the flock and see the needs, and the face is where you find the mouth necessary to speak the Word of truth that pastor’s are gifted to share with the flock. Yep, to me, anyone with the pastor gifting is a face.

So….here’s a pet peeve I have. Why do so many congregations tend to cut off their face and lay it to the side as if it is ‘different’ from the rest of the Body? Seriously, so many congregations I have known treat the pastor as if he/she is different from the rest of Jesus’ flock. (Okay, I do understand that there are character traits and conduct scripturally expected of those in leadership that we are to adhere to. THAT is not what I am talking about.) What I am talking about here is the expectation that a pastor is supposed to be a fully formed Christian with no struggles, no questions, no doubts, no character flaws that Christ is filing into a new shape; he/she must have all theology perfectly in place and know everything there is no know right now. In other words, the pastor is an entity that is entirely different than the rest of the Body, so he/she is often ‘cut off’ from the rest and laid to the side to function alone.

The truth is, every pastor I have ever known has been just like me. He/she struggled with doubts and questions and had character flaws that God, over time, revamped; he/she had theology that changed over time because just like me, his/her heart was seeking God and therefore coming into renewed knowledge all the time. I’ve never known someone who was perfect and complete just because they had the gift of pastoring. Therefore, they desperately needed the same connection that we all need, the same blood flow, the same nurturing that the rest of the flock provides one another. They needed to be able to fall and have a hand pick them up; they needed to be able to hurt and not be judged; they needed to be free to not pretend, but rather just be who they are, where they are in their journey.

Looking back, even though I struggled with a fear of church leaders, Rich and I were discussing how many pastors I have “pastored” in moments. As a non—threatening outsider I was able to sit in their office, listen to their fears and struggles, watch them cry or cry with them, pray over them, and encourage the best I knew how. I saw the loneliness that so many felt because they felt they were disconnected from the blood flow – as if they were only providers and didn’t have the right to need the same nurturing as the rest of the Body. I witnessed this sad expectation they carried that they needed to hide their struggles because of the unrealistic judgments they would endure if others knew. Sometimes this disconnect came from the expectations of the flock, sometimes it was a result of the ‘pastoral face’ that many pastors wear, a mask of sorts that they put on that hides them from the flock because of a fear they will be judged if they are seen. Either way, whether it is flawed thinking in the flock or fears in the pastor, cutting off the face isn’t healthy. The face needs the blood flow; the face needs pampered and treasured when the foul weathers of life torment and harm it; the face needs to be as fully connected as every other member of the Body. And all parts need to be connected to Jesus.