WELCOME AND CATCHING UP
Each time you gather, there should be ample time to check in with each other. Sometimes an issue will arise that takes precedence over the planned discussion. The purpose of the group is to build a set of trusting relationships in which clergy feel supported and nourished.
There may arise many other questions stimulated by the story that need to be explored. The schedule should be open to such exploration. Below are some questions that make use of the story to share different aspects of the clergy experience.
REFLECTIONS ON YOUR BROTHER’S BLOOD
1. In the story, Carla shares her feelings of anger at how easy people can ignore the pain of those who suffer in the world. In response, Al says: “As a pastor, I see people’s capacity to shield themselves from other people’s pain all the time. To be honest, I do that myself sometimes.” Do you agree that many people learn to cope in this world by ignoring the pain of others?
2. When Carla asks how people will respond at the presbytery meeting, Al responds:”To be honest…I think they will admire your courage, be touched by your stories, and be afraid to take any significant action that might upset the people in their congregations.”
He then proceeds to speak about the pressures that pastors feel to compromise: “I know it sounds defensive, but these pastors are not bad people, Carla. Most pastors I know genuinely want to be faithful and respond to human need, but they feel a lot of pressure to compromise when it comes to speaking out.” Whether it is this type of issue or something else, do you think pastors feel a tension between what they want to say and do and what they feel the members of their congregation will accept?
3. Carla describes her sense of God’s call being based on seeing the courage of Caesar Chavez and wanting that type of courage of faith. Al then speaks of the sense of dignity he derived from feeling called by God. If you were to speak of what is at the root of your original sense of call, what would it be?
4. When speaking of the challenge of ministry, Al speaks of people’s fear of change and uses Genesis’ image of God placing a dome over the chaos of the waters protect life but still allowing some water or chaos into peoples’ lives. Then he says: “Many people in our congregations want to be merciful but only if it doesn’t change things too much. They want to cling to the order in society that benefits them— hide under their self-constructed dome, as it were. These are the people who pay the pastor’s salary, and, maybe even more important, these are the people who are the pastor’s friends.”
How realistic do you think that fear of change is reflected in congregations and the pressure it creates for pastors?
5. Al tries to describe the effect of the compromises forced on pastors in ministry: “I don’t know many pastors who don’t, at some level, feel they compromise their souls in the very act of being in the ministry.”
Then he uses the analogy of a love relationship that grows cold:
A pastor falls in love with a people,” said Al. “At first the pastor thinks the relationship is made in heaven and wants to do things to please them. Then their constant demands begin to chip away at the pastor’s passion. He or she feels more used than loved.”
Do you think this happens for some pastors?
6. The strategy that Al and Carla developed in her presentation at presbytery was to encourage people to remember both their sense of call and God who had called them. How does it impact you when you remember that it is God who has called you to your ministry?
7. What are the ways that you keep in touch with your sense of God’s call in your life?
8. Stepping aside from the specific issue of immigration for the moment, what issues does this story lift up for you with respect to your experience of ministry?
9. Is there anything else from the story that you would like to discuss?
In the next blog, we will discuss what people mean when they speak of healthy and unhealthy pastors.
