If there is one profession that tries to comment on everything, pastoral ministry is one of them. Because of the high respect associated with this calling, the chances of being heard on various issues are more elevated. Unfortunately, the power invested in this calling sometimes gets overused. By saying things that we were not trained on with authority, many have questioned the integrity of this profession. People judge us by the wrong comments we make outside our domain. Below is my two cents suggestion to all called to pastoral ministries regardless of your religion.
A year ago, Covid-19 silenced many in pastoral duties because we had nothing to offer. While we were silent, waiting for scientists to find solutions to the pandemic, scientists worked around the clock to develop a vaccine like they do all the time. Now scientists have done what they know best. Boom! God’s ministers have joined the discussion again, of which I see nothing wrong because we too enjoy the freedom of expression on various things.
Fully recognizing one of the pastoral roles of guiding our members on various things, I still feel obliged to remind each other on one thing. We must do our best to be responsible enough with what we say or do not say. Whenever we comment on things outside our periscope, we always have to remind ourselves that we are not experts in those areas. Are we not the same people who beg professionals from different disciplines to respect us when it comes to interpreting Scriptures?
This tendency of commenting on things outside our training with authority, I am afraid that it may silence us again when people also discover that some of us spoke out of ignorance. All this happening reminds me of Paul’s advice to Timothy. He said, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
Fellow ministers, we all can preserve our dignity and also respect people’s choices. We can achieve this by not overstepping in areas where we can easily be proven wrong and bring shame to God’s work. Before we make statements out there on anything, we must always be sure that we have studied for ourselves diligently. Otherwise, our efforts to dissuade or direct people in a direction we think is right may backfire later when our parishioners find out that they were ill-motivated or instructed. Thank you so much for reading this article up to this end. May we join hands in praying to God that He saves our land from various pandemics, including this ruthless Coronavirus.
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