Jesus asked,
“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? ” “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.” Luke 10:36-37
In this story, Jesus used a despised Samaritan to school the religious leaders on what obeying the greatest commandment looked like. He said the Samaritan showed compassion.
While Jesus made the Samaritan the hero, He depicted the religious leaders as aloof and cold. They saw the broken and bruised man, but rather than offering aid, they passed on the other side of the road.
The Condition of Our Neighbors
Over 80% of my neighbors, and probably yours, are not connected to Christ or a church. Many will affirm some kind of relgious belief or affilation, but an increasingly few follow Jesus as Lord. They are “without God and without hope in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). And that hopelessness produces profound brokenness.
While we may tempted to just keep on walking by, to keep on doing the good things we’re doing that keep the broken man at a distance, Jesus expects us to stop and show mercy.
Jesus expects us to stop and show mercy.
And in this famous story, Jesus called out the religious leaders. They had somewhere else to go, and they did whatever they could to avoid helping this broken man.
We would be intellectually dishonest and hermenuetically negligent if we failed to consider the application of this story for the modern pastor.
Shepherd the Flock Among You
The New Testament teaches that pastors are to shepherd the congregation in their care:
Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 1 Peter 5:2-4
Shepherding involves duties such as a preaching, leading, overseeing, and protecting the people entrusted to them. It also includes being an example worthy of imitating. There is both an expectation of orthodoxy and orthopraxy—of believing rightly and of behaving rightly.
We often think of a pastor’s behavior in terms of moral purity, which is essential, but perhaps we would do well to also apply it to his missional purity, which was, I think, Jesus’ concern in this story of the Good Samaritan.
The Pastor’s Schedule
The typical pastor’s schedule is occupied with three things: (1) screens, (2) staff, and (3) services.
First, technological advances help us all do our job and serve others more effectively. In pastoral ministry, that means pastors spend a lot of time in front of a screen preparing sermons, drafting emails, and engaging on social media.
Second, the scope of leadership responsibilities requires a pastor recruit and spend a great deal of time with staff and key volunteers. Managing the operations of a local church means organizing people and programming around the vision of the church.
Third, because gathering God’s people together is foundational to the nature of the church, pastors spend a great deal of time preparing, conducting, and following up on services.
None of these three priorities are wrong. Actually, all of them are very right. But the question is, “How might these priorities be pulling us to the wrong side of the road?”
The Screens, Staff, and Services Effect
To answer that question, let’s consider “The Screens, Staff, and Services Effect.”
For starters, screens, staff, and services often skew our measurables. The feedback, the metrics, the likes are all from people who are already following us. Confirmation bias is not only baked in to the algorythms that drive social media, they’re also built in to the relationship contexts that shape us.
Next, screens, staff, and services can isolate us from people who are not following Jesus. It’s our hope that these things will attract lost people to our church, but the numbers do not always bear that out. As a result, we are often busy creating programs for lost people, but we have little personal awareness of the acute brokenness of those people. We don’t know them. We may see them, but we’re rarely ever close enough to serve them.
We are often busy creating programs for lost people, but we have no personal awareness of the acute brokenness of those people. We see them, but we’re rarely close enough to serve them.
Finally, screens, staff, and services can shrivel our compassion for broken people. We see the dehumanization of our neighbors in every sector of society as digital spaces and virtual platforms expand. And we see it among religious professionals as well.
From behind our screens, we can take positions and make declarations. We find oursevles straining at gnats, collecting gnats, hosting gnat webinars, and gaining gnat-straining admirers. But what we can’t do from behind our screens is hold broken people in our arms. We can’t weep with them, bandage them up, or provide a place of healing for them.
From behind our screens, we take positions and make declarations. We strain at gnats, collect gnats, host gnat webinars, and gain gnat-straining admirers.
It seems that if pastors are going to get on the right side of the road, we need to consider how our current schedules, how our church systems, and how our daily habits may be insulating us from the very neighbors and from the very community we want to serve.
Our calling to be holy is a missional calling to be distinct, but never distant.
PICTURES OF THE WEEK
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
To Transform a City by Eric Swanson and Sam Williams
Atomic Habits, by James Clear
A New Thing: United States Postal Services Informed Delivery! At usps.com, sign up for Informed Delivery, and get a daily email telling you what mail you’re receiving, pause mail delivery, etc. Really cool.
EVERYONE’S WILSON | THE EVERYONE’S WELCOME NETWORK
I’m the Executive Director of Everyone’s Wilson and The Everyone’s Welcome Network—a Gospel-driven community transformation initiative. Our mission is to unite the Church to engage the community, so everyone thrives. Very simply, we’re passionate about helping Jesus-loving people live like missionaries in their local community through prayer, service, evangelism, and collaboration.
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