Digital Desert

Original Written & Posted: September 16, 2020

PASTOR.

This word has meant so much to me over the past 17 years or so. I felt called to be a "pastor" in 2003 as a 19-year-old student. It was a significant shift in a career path. It very much felt like dying to a dream and a future and stepping into something unknown and insecure. I've worked as a pastor for 14 years, 11 leading a church plant. This role, this job, this position has never been about a career or job; it has been a calling into a vocation. This is a holy vocation, one that is set apart to serve a local community, shepherding people into wholeness.

Pastor today seems to get disembodied in the online world. We become images, personalities; we are given platforms to protect and "steward." We are to be business-minded, strategic, charismatic and likable, organizational in our leadership, funny, thoughtful, kind, and careful, and culturally relevant. The expectations of a pastor are overwhelming, especially in this moment of time. Everything seems to be politically charged, and everyone has an opinion about how engaged their pastor must be. It feels like social media has created this other space of expectation. A place to use a platform to get a message out. A place to use a platform to speak into this vast world filled with meaningless noise and many words.

A pastor is one who is immersed with his people. A pastor is one who speaks the word of God for the moment to a people. I believe the role of a pastor is more important now than ever before. But not the role defined by the modern era. We must relearn what it means to pastor from the life of Jesus. A role that rejects platforms and leads by example, a role saturated in presence, not tweets and posts. The incarnate, the intentional, the slow and insignificant ways of obedience, rather than hype, momentum and likes.

I have never desired more to be with my people, my community, my family @garden.church. I've never longed for the church God has entrusted me to pastor and walk alongside. I don't want to be just a "leader," I don't want to be just a "communicator," I don't want to be a "personality," or "thinker" or whatever the careerism of ministry pushes my way. I want to be a pastor to a community. I want to walk people into Christlikeness. I want to be in the process of grace with others. I want to know them and I want them to know me.

To do this, I am going to disappoint a lot of people. People who have really good "expectations" and good "intentions." But, those expectations and intentions are what cause pastors to drift into performance and false self-leadership. I am going to stay under the influence of the Spirit. Under the direction of Jesus and under the extravagant love of the Father.

For me, staying under such direction and influence requires a disconnect from certain forces in my life.

Social Media is hazardous to the well-being of the human soul. I believe there might be a good use for it, but I'm not sure we found that yet. I continue to see the negative and dare I say, evils, of this system working its way into our minds and souls. It has more influence over us than we know. It has more power than we see, and it is deforming us into kinds of people who are judgmental, angry, mean, meaningless and anti-Jesus. We are losing our ability to have compassion. We are losing the capacity for Truth. We need to find another way forward. (For all my friends who are Christian and part of churches. Please know pastors are human, and most that I know are struggling through this Covid-19 time. They are trying their best to lead with vision while working in a way that has never been done in the church except in rare moments in history. Add the expectations placed on pastors to engage in social media around politics, social justice, culture wars, mask debates, public worship gatherings debates, etc.. I wouldn't be surprised to watch many pastors leave the ministry because of burnout during this time. So be thankful for your pastors, all of them. The worship pastors, small group pastors, kids pastors, and youth pastors, and everyone working to shepherd a community into Christlikeness. Be thankful. Be gracious. They face extraordinary challenges, and their families face incredible pressure).

All to say, I must again walk into the digital desert, the digital wilderness in order to remain obedient to who I want to be.

If you would like my occasional thoughts or to follow my journey visit this website often as I continue to write blogs.

Grace+Peace,

Pastor Darren