The first step in following the Hypocritic Oath for Pastors, is to name some of the times when we are haunted by our own hypocrisies. This is your private list, not to be shown to others. As a beginning, try to identify 10 situations or attitudes in which you personally sense some hypocrisies in your life and ministry. Here are some for me to get you started.
1. I entered seminary having served in the Peace Corps in Peru. I thought I would become a pastor in the inner-city and continue my work with the poor. All three of my churches have been upper middle class churches.
2. If we are to love God with our heart, soul, and mind, why do I pay more attention to being a success in ministry than in listening to God?
3. I believe in prayer and urge others to pray regularly. Yet far too often I let other demands in my life take precedence over prayer time.
4. I know that you cannot love God and money, but far too often I am seduced by what will make me financially secure.
5. I know that we are to forgive 7 times 70 times but I let irritating parishioners trigger my anger more than my forgiveness.
6. I believe that God has provided the Scriptures as a gift through which God can speak to us, yet I rarely simply read the Scriptures simply as a means of listening to God. Most of my work with Scripture is for the sake of preaching or teaching, and sometimes as a weapon to quote.
7. If perfect love casts out fear, why do I allow fear to so often shape my response?
8. If my colleagues in ministry are God’s servants, why do I find it so easy to judge some of them?
9. If the whole church is the Body of Christ, why do I find it so easy to act like an arm saying to the foot, I have no need of you?
10 If I believe God to be sovereign, and that God knew what God was doing at creation, why do I fear for the future of the world?
OK, that is my initial set. How about you?
SMcCutchan