The conversation continues. You may not have encountered a sniper in your ministry, but there are probably several parallel if less dramatic encounters where you had no choice but to respond.
THE INTEGRITY OF MINISTRY
You could probably add to Ethan’s list of inditements of the church. What are some of your strategies for coping with the disconnect between church behavior and what you believe the church is called to be in the Scripture?
In the story, Ethan challenges the very integrity of ministry.
“‘Face it, Mark. Don’t you feel like a hypocrite, getting up Sunday after Sunday, and telling people that they should love a neighbor who is willing to betray them to make a few more dollars? I’ll bet you tell them that they should trust your absentee God—a god who is willing to allow untold innocent children to starve in this world while Christians support governments who waste billions of dollars building weapons to destroy each other.”
“‘Isn’t God supposed to be all knowing? Didn’t the Almighty One know from the beginning that he was creating a universe in which such cruelty would continue to exist? A child with tinker toys could make a better creation than that.’
Do you believe that God knew what God was doing when God created the universe and first called Israel and later established the church to minister to the world?
THE HYPOCRITICAL OATH OF CLERGY
How do you feel about Mark’s response when he says: “You asked me a question, Ethan. ‘The answer is I do feel like a hypocrite, sometimes.’
“‘I think it is one of the unspoken burdens of the ministry. We are not given the luxury of taking a few months off when we are filled with doubts. Rather, we have to stand up each Sunday morning and try to offer hope and courage to a people who are desperate for some good news that will help them survive.'”
Mark puts a positive spin on the definition of hypocrite when he says: “Life gets overwhelming at times. All good pastors are hypocrites. When life gets rough and the questions are without answers, they playact as if it is true until people can believe again. That’s what it means to be a hypocrite—to playact at the truth.”
Should pastors only speak of what they know to be true or is it OK to sometimes proclaim what they want to be true?
WHAT WILL THEY REMEMBER?
In the final scene in the hospital, Ethan speaks of how Mark’s behavior impacted him.
“‘I’ll still have my doubts, but you reflected the God I want to believe in. If I had fallen, my life would have ended without value. I was totally focused on myself. If you had fallen to your death, your life would still have had value, not only to me but to those who witnessed what you did and those who told the story to others.'”
How do you evaluate Ethan’s analysis of Mark’s ministry to him?
What does that say about authority in ministry?
How do you react to the idea that minister’s take a hypocritic oath as pastors?
