“I’m astounded by people who want to ‘know’ the universe when it’s hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.” Woody Allen
I’d like to direct this post to the many people seeking advice these days on book writing and getting Ph D education and stuff like that.
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I am a pastor, church planter, nurturer of missional communities and a full-time professor at a seminary. I regularly receive inquiries from people seeking advice on how they too can follow my path. It seems there are a lot of young men and women who find the dual task of teaching in a seminary and pastoring appealing.
I don’t exactly know what’s going on but I am always prompted to ask these good people why they would find my life appealing? I sometimes think people want to teach because they find the influence and admiration that comes with these dual jobs appealing. Perhaps they find speaking engagements enticing because of the acclaim that can give someone. I AM NOT SAYING I HAVE EITHER. But think about all that for a minute. I don’t think you should gain influence in the church apart from what God has being doing in, through and around you within a circle of community relationships in Christ. i.e. in the church. And you can’t plan that. Right? You should start therefore from wherever you are living in ministry and pursue faithfulness and take opportunities for influence ONLY with the greatest of care. Lest you be elevated falsely as part of a media campaign or some other untoward hype. (I recognize this can be read as arrogant – but I seriously am not assuming I have any of this influence or authority).
It seems at one time there was a path to influence within Christendom. Do well in your seminary studies. Practice and become a polished public speaker. Go get a Ph. D. at a premier school and write and think on the highest levels competing against the best. I did none of this BTW so maybe I’m not the one to ask. Yet from my perspective, that world is shrinking. The days of gaining influence from positional achievement in Christendom are (gladly) waning. Today this kind of (Christendom) influence is largely generated in large conference venues. For me, these venues try to sell too much. Again, because Christendom has its problems, I strongly suggest none of us go this route. The best thing for anyone is to put these temptations towards influence aside, and start with the ministry God has given you. Seek faithfulness and allow God to use you in the world. Seek additional education as it seems a natural extension of your life – the life God is working in and through you already. If influence comes, it comes from God and you should submit to it humbly and in service to His Kingdom.
The allure of fame seems to be everywhere these days. I talk to at least two or three people a month who want to write a book. Everybody wants to write a book, be a speaker at conferences, or affect the national conversation (what national conversation?). It seems like nothing matters unless you’re starting a new movement to end global poverty in our lifetime (or something like that). It seems everyone is starting a blog, a new church, a twitter account, all to gain a following so they can do something national or transnational. Why this chase for national significance? To me this is counterproductive to the Kingdom and works against one’s own personal development in Christ.
Notoriety has a way of screwing with your mind. I say if it happens to you keep your head down and be very intentional on your spiritual disciplines. I’ve seen it happen a hundred times. A pastor or a leader becomes nationally known, gets asked to speak at conferences, quits his/her day job and starts appearing on stage as the supposed “expert.” He/she becomes separated from his/her ministry that kept him grounded, that kept her work generative and in touch with actual life issues in church and ministry. Before you know it, he/she’s got to appear in Metro Somewhere to say something to help people he/she does not know about a problem he/she hasn’t dealt with in ten years. And yet we listen to people like this eh?
Worse, something happens to said person (I’ve experienced this personally) when this dynamic starts to shape one’s life. You start appearing as someone you’re not, someone people now expect you (and pay you) to be. And I’m sorry, at this point something huge has been lost by both the person speaking and the people listening. The only way this can work for either the speaker or audience is if the speaker pays attention to his/her spiritual formation in a live Christian community in Mission and is actually invested there, being shaped there, being called out of sin there, and participating in real life mission there.
In the end, I contend that every movement that changed the world started with relationships. It started on the ground. Most non-relational ways to change the world only end up either preserving the existing order or worse sustaining an injustice hidden beneath the ideology. Their effect might be big initially but almost always short lived. We raise huge sums of money that in the end do very little because the social redemptive reconciliation only happens painstakingly on the ground. And yet we are tempted to contribute to the big (it makes us feel more significant?).
I remember sitting around a church leadership meeting one night talking about a proposal to contribute to a national campaign by some famous musicians to stem the AIDS epidemic in Africa. I asked if anyone knew what percentages of the money would go to the cause, to whom and where. No one knew. Meanwhile we had a relationship with a missionary hospital in the rural area of Africa dealing with 100’s of AIDS patients a year, whom we knew well (my sister ministers there). The other more famous option was more appealing. Uh why do we do this? For me, revolutions work for change on the ground in the raising up of repentant and resistant communities (Read Ched Myers on this).
I admit I have a blog. I started to tweet a year ago. I speak at conferences. I admit I have an agenda. It’s driven by what I see as the way forward in post-Christendom in America. Call it Neo-Anabaptist Missional Christian life. I admit to trying to make my case, often in large settings.
I have discovered however that my blog, twitter feed, facebook and speaking must be part of my life, not a calculated strategy to make a wider case. Stangely, my blogging, tweeting etc. have become part of my personal spiritual disciplines. They have become part of me developing my theology from the ground up. And I go to conferences to get challenged and put forth ideas and contribute to/support grass roots organizations I feel committed to. But I need to take the warning, that the minute I try to architect all this into some national exposure, I find my material disqualified as something not real but manufactured. I must be grounded in the proving of God’s truth amidst vibrant missional communities living among the everyday rhythms of post Christendom. This is where any authority/gifting I have is recognized and authenticated. In real relationships. This is where I think true gospel/kingdom work begins because, in the words of Gil Scot Heron “the revolution will not be televised.”
So here is my very best advice to all of us who would be used by God in whatever context, yet have big dreams – to get a PhD, become a seminary professor, write a book and speak at conferences. Put aside your big plans, put aside your well devised managed future where you think if I get said degree, start a blog, write a book and plant a church, I can find my role in the church. No go the other way. Sell everything, abandon all personal ambition to the life of following Christ into the local mission of God. This will most likely mean inefficiency, getting down and dirty, getting a job and working alongside others in realm life community. It will demand that you devote energy and time to getting good at stuff which doesn’t seem immediately germane to becoming a national church leader. But that’s ok. Spend time in cultivating a community life, partnering with several others, learn your gifts and start cultivating the Kingdom in a neigbourhood. And then see what happens. See what God does. Listen for what God is saying and respond daily. Out of this place, when money – time affords, pursue a graduate theological education that will deepen your understanding of the Scriptures, theological trajectories and culture. If teaching opportunities come, book contracts and speaking opportunities come – praise God! Use them to further the gospel of His Kingdom. But always, I REPEAT ALWAYS, treat them carefully – submitting one’s ego to the Kingdom lest you too become a statistic on the scrapheap of fleeting fame.
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To anyone attracted to this way of thought – I’d like to recommend this conference. EPIC Fail. Check it out here. I love this kind of meeting place to discern what God is doing among us instead of listening to people we’ve exalted as experts. Read what Bob Hyatt has to say about national conferences here. I agree with everything he says. And if I have offended anyone with this post – tell me what I need to hear. I’m always ready to repent from hubris or whatever … Blessings as we pursue on the ground ministry together!!
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Thanks, David! This is such valuable insight and it smacked me right where I needed it. I've been wrestling for a year with this sort of pastoral multiple personality disorder. One hour I'm a facebooking, tweeting, media monger author hoping to get invited to speak about something random. . . . . and the next hour I'm a pastor having hard conversations with people, being challenged, challenging them. Trying not to get too overwhelmed and upset by the reality of our very frail, shared human experience. Marrying people, burying people, crying with people. And I've finally settled on the fact that (for me at least) I'm called to be with people. I had a horrible day today, two hours of painful conversation with a member of our congregation and yet it felt so much more redemptive than a twitter campaign (not that I am jumping off twitter just yet). But anyway, yeah, as a person who is freaking out in both worlds I am consistently reminded that one leads to an enriched communal experience while the other just leads to Amazon sales ranks. . . . . .
Tracey, if the one leads the other – in others words the life of ministry within community in Mission leads the twitter, facebook, blog etc… then I see that as a net good. twitter, facebook, etc become a form of spiritual formation i.e. I work out my thoughts, communicate theological complex ideas in a more earthy form, etc. all of which helps to integrate me in a larger community and communicate. No? So I was just arguing, don't let the media stuff/big idea/ ego crap lead. Always being gided by a rooting practice in real life ministry in community… and letting the rest flow therefrom.
Great post, David! You’re absolutely spot on. This is your wisest post yet. Thanks
This is interesting to me, as I started as a writer (though primarily non-religious, free lance). In fact, I've been making money as a writer since I was 15. It was only in my 30's that I became a pastor. With my high school diploma, I am unlikely to ever get an invitation to teach at any school. The idea of speaking at conferences terrifies me (which my publisher probably won't like to hear). Like yourself, blogging & twitter have become a spiritual discipline & relational network.
I wonder, though, if some people seek this path- not for fame- but for the opportunity to have a sustainable income while doing ministry. As it is increasingly difficult for people to pay the bills as a pastor (I get paid nothing myself), writing & teaching seem like natural ways to make that happen. I suspect there is not enough of a "market" to sustain all of those who want this.
At any rate, great thoughts as usual. Thanks!
I think that last paragraph about income is a great insight.
Jamie, I am a big proponent of bi-vocationality. I'm just wandering why the pastoral bi-vocation most often leads to some other type of 'fame-ego' type of vocation. Where are the pastor/farmers…or better yet, the tent-makers? Or the non-for profit part-timers.
Well put David. I completely resonant with your blog. Dying to the self life is always hard. It is a difficult thing to work the other way from the direction we have been discipled into our whole lives by family, school and culture. I am finding this uniquely American mindset both a blessing and a curse to us and the world.
Thanks David! I am kept grounded by a wife and accountability teams both online and from the church we attend who sent me into digital space – they arent afraid to tell me if I am either wrong or getting too big for my boots!
Thanks Dave. A good reminder that what I'm doing right now matters for the kingdom, even when it feels like it doesn't, and that I can't live my life waiting for "the big break."
Good stuff, David. I think even for a simple someone like me – who has no desire (or ability, probably) to write a book or get a phd or speak at conferences – there is admittedly sometimes a temptation to see that as the "way of success"… and it can leave me feeling a little 'less than' knowing that I'm not 'achieving' it. Thanks for putting it in perspective… And I'm putting Heron's "the revolution will not be televised" on my office wall today!
This was great David, it sums up precisely why I quit running Christian conferences. It was getting far to close to just creating a market for those types of people who just wanted to become professional Christian speakers. For me, there is nothing more disingenuous than a Christian who wants to be known. So while we brought in some great thinkers, presenters and ran what I think are to be great conferences. The best conferences were the ones that were the most poorly attended or complained about the most and became impossible to even break even. The masses do not want to be challenged and to be bored while they are challenged by an old man, they want video clips and well polished communicators. I can't run conferences for the masses anymore.
This isn't to say I don't find a place for great conferences or speakers, I'm challenged by them every day, but I think it will be more inconspicuous than big conferences where this hard work of transforming minds will be done. I hope we can build environments in our local communities where these national voices can have a proper voice but where we do the hard work of translating it into our local cultures, national speakers cannot do that for us, and if we interpret as a community we'll probably weed out a lot of the speakers/authors that seem to just write and present because of an ego and don't really have anything worthwhile to say. The bookshelves and internet, especially Christian, are full of that.
I read this post late last night, and it has stuck with me this morning. I found it a completely freeing perspective, as someone who is currently feeling the pressure of trying to "build a platform." The thing is, I'm not really interested in building a platform, but it's what the publishing world expects so I've just gone along with it all. But your post helps me to recognize and embrace a different path. I really like your idea of pursuing faithfulness in the small things, and to treat opportunities for greater exposure, if and when they come, with great care and humility. This is a post I will return back to again and again. Thanks, David.
If the goal is simply to become educated, write a book, and become a popular national/international speaker at conferences…it is little wonder why the church in North America seems so anemic. Further more, if this is a person's goal, I might even need to question their perceived calling. God calls leaders to his mission for his mission and not what seems to be increasingly becoming a Christian celebrity list. If a leader finds him or herself in the later it should only be because they are truly serving in the former.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
Rex, what you say would seem obvious, but the temptation – American induced I would argue – is nevertheless persistent. Thanks to others above who posted additional insights!!
Reminds me of Bonhoeffer in Life Together, "God hates visionary dreaming." I think this is exactly the kind of life disconnect that he was pointing at with that statement.
David,
You are right about the temptation. I know of many pastors, myself included, who freely acknowledge the temptation. That is why I am always in admiration for my friend and brother in Christ, Ricardo, a Brazilian native who serves as a church-planter/pastor in Brazil and receives no celebrity fan-fare but knows his "reward is great in heaven."
Grace and Peace,
Rex
Great advice for me to hear today.
I mean no disrespect, however, when I ask why I only hear this advice from people who are already well known, who have books in print, have thousands of twitter followers, and are frequent conference speakers.
I sincerely ask, did you follow this exact same advice to get where you are today? Or did you follow the Christendom model, and now that you are where you are, have a chance to reflect back and see what sacrifices you made to get there?
Timely words from Hauerwas' "Hanna's Child": If theologians become famous in times like ours, surely they have betrayed their calling.
Looking forward to catching up with you in Toronto, David!
I'm going to tweet that!
Thanx Joe
Thank you for this, David.
One of the most personally challenging things I have read in a long time.
Some of the best advice I've read all year – thanks.
That's good stuff! David, I've very much appreciated your teaching and blog. Thanks for sharing, and keeping yourself and others grounded! This post seems well timed, and hits on a major undercurrent in the American church right now.
Indirectly, this is a reminder to us tucked away in S Ontario. When we challenge idols, people get upset – some even leave. The tendency is to panic. We may be cutting off the branch we sit on. Except.. except.. since when is pastoring a career? Back to the basics of how we measure success. Nouwen – we aren't called to success but to fruitfulness… Lord, let us be found faithful..
Thanks David, You've been a breath of fresh air ever since I met you through reading The Great Giveaway. God gives us all different talents and as long as we joyfully serve Him with what He gives us – we can delight in Him! Your post reminds me that we find joy, when we serve Him with what is given. What good does it do the kingdom to be constantly seeking to be something other then what the Master has asked us to be? You’re post is a good example of how to live in Him and through His gifts. Blessings, Brian
David, these words are deeply pastoral to me. Surely God helped somehow nudge the tweet to this post into my awareness. As a neo-Anabaptist dual masters degree student in theology and peacebuilding, now in my third of four years, this whole "PhD/no PhD" question has been tearing me up for a while. My scholarly passions (along with papers for conferences and my own blog) are tempered by my pastoral/missional/evangelical instincts that really drive me to keep theology grounded and relevant to local expressions of church. So perhaps my future lies is something that looks like…"itinerant teacher"…? Thanks for your timely advice. Grace and peace to you and other "big thinkers" out there…
EGO CHECK! Thanks, David.
In the spirit of this article,
An amazing man spreading the faith in an unconventional way throughout New York City!
http://newyorkknowsbest.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/…
This cab driver is a Pastor!
A great read!!!