BEING A HYPOCRITE
Have you considered the importance of a hypocritic oath for pastors. Its important to recognize the hypocrisies that you have in your life. As a very private exercise, try to identify at least five personal hypocrisies in your own life. Notice how it feels to actually name them. Now, let’s take that another step forward.
The purpose of naming your hypocrisy is not for guilt sake but to enable you to break free of their power. Once I was able to acknowledge that, despite the mandate of the Gospel, I was a racist, I opened myself to the power of God to use an imperfect servant to break down some racial barriers. Once I am free to acknowledge that I am very imperfect and that God loves me anyway, I am free to be less self-righteous of others. The more I can identify both my own failings and the failings of the church, the more I stand in awe at God’s ability to work through the church for the sake of God’s world.
GOD IS NOT DEFEATED
I had a minister friend who had messed up his marriage and was going through a divorce. He told me that Sunday after Sunday he would feel overwhelmed by his unworthiness to say anything about God, Christ, and faith. Yet, each Sunday, he had to rise and preach. As we talked about it over time, he discovered that his very pain of unworthiness deepened his sermons. It was not from a perspective of purity that he addressed his congregation but as a sinner who was wrestling with the Gospel. That didn’t justify what had happened in his marriage, but it did allow him to experience personally how God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
Take the list that you create of the situations and attitudes that make you feel like a hypocrite and try to identify specific possibilities of how God might work through each of them for a greater good either in your personal life or your ministry.
The ONE BODY OF CHRIST
This can also apply to a congregation as a whole. A church that confesses its own hypocrisies is open to redeeming grace. In February, My novel, Shock and Awe: A church Recognizes Its Racism and Is Awed by God’s Invitation. offers in story form how Christian churches might move beyond both denial and guilt about the racism that distorts the Gospel and open themselves to how God can enable them to proclaim Good News for a society that is deeply enmeshed in our racist history. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZBJG1PZ
It might be a good resource to help a church explore its own ministry in our society. I am also preparing a step by step guide for how churches and pastors can engage in a positive strategy that addresses racism from a faith perspective in our society.
My goal is to offer at least eight videos demonstrating how a congregation can allow members to grow in faith as they recognize the impact of racism on their lives and the life of the congregation. Feel free to contact me about securing a copy or look at my website, www.smccutchan.com
Join me: https://youtu.be/9KDbPG-BObQ
Steve
Good work, thought provoking.
Maybe food for pastoral self-care?
Steve, I believe that hypocrisy is a social guilt that most of the middle-class in America carries like a stone necklace around their necks. Many of the clergy could be included. We collectively, neither do nor think about the comfortable most of us enjoy. I think that by saying “thank you” as much as we do, we seem to free ourselves of this guilt, but in speaking for myself, we know inherently our being better off is at the expense of others’ comfort. My consolation is that I am not alone, that this is a community issue or problem. At our age, are we entitled? I don’t believe this is enough for me to feel free of the guilt. The issue of racial discrimination for me is part of this. I went to a Quaker, integrated high school at a time when this was rare, and was exposed to liberal beliefs which I mostly still hold, and I believe that God is present in every person. This helps me relate comfortably to persons of other races and ethnicities. I feel welcoming towards the Afghan newcomers as they integrate with the Shores.