Old Young Pastors

My mom made an interesting comment to me today. She, in reference to the new associate pastor at my home church, said that she'd been having a conversation with the Children's Minister at the church about how pastors are so old. I said, "Ummmmmm Craig's only 28," very confused about what she meant. She said, "No, even the young pastors are just old today. I want to make sure you and Craig don't go getting old." Here's where I realized she wasn't talking about age.

Somewhere in the midst of seminary training and being beaten over the head about how "serious" the Eucharist liturgy is, we forget that not everything about what we do, no matter what that is, has to be so tightly strung. Mom seemed genuinely afraid that Craig and I were going to quickly turn into boring, serious pastors who don't joke, play, run, laugh.....Does it look to you like we're going to be that way?












We're not going to lose ourselves or our energy. Yes, being a pastor is a holy position but God calls us as we are. We are qualified by that grace. We are no greater than any of our parishioners. We are who we are (flawed, funny, vibrant, broken, exciting, boring, bright, energetic, silly, and many other things) because 'I am' is 'I am.'