Editor's Note: Mark Barger Elliott is Senior Pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan and author of Creative Styles of Preaching. His blog Faith in the World identifies stories of hope from around the world and places where religion intersects everyday life.
I think this is a thoughtful and helpful article on the needed posture of people in ministry.
“…. the inability for people in church leadership to be ALLOWED to be real and human…” That’s more clarifying and what I was trying to say…
Interesting thoughts. I would add the lack of honesty about sexuality, or abhorrence of it in evangelical Christianity of the late 20th century, the inability for people in church leadership to be real and human, and the continued tension of gender in leadership, a wonderful Augustinian leftover we can’t seem to shake.
I am not sure I agree on his first point as most people who end up in leadership at any level are juggling multiple responsibilities. I don’t feel isolating those who preach and teach from the realities of finances is in any way helpful. It only isolates them further from the realities their parishioners are facing.