I’m am drowning in a question. The question concerns ‘pastoral identity’.
As many of you know, I am currently on internship in an ELCA church (liberal Lutherans for those who don’t know what that acronym means). This is turning out to be a very good experience and my supervising pastor and I get along extremely well. We have found that we both enjoy discussion and even a touch of healthy debate about all things ‘God’ and all things ‘church’. Our life experience and even our ‘generation gap’ are proving to be a source not of tension, but of different points of view. One such issue I am beginning to find is the topic of ‘pastoral identity’.
I do not have any intention of sharing our conversations or point of view as that simply wouldn’t be fair, however I do want to raise an issue to all of you reading this BLOG, this issue of pastoral identity.
What is it that constitutes a strong pastoral identity? Is it the title? The office? The call to preach? Is it the clerical (you know, the black shirt and white collar that make us look like a priest)?
In short, I’m wondering how this ‘pastoral identity’ can or should be evaluated. I am a ‘pastor’ (and yes, I will use that word even though I’m still on internship) who does not wear a clerical collar (except maybe funerals and such). In my tradition, it used to be a very common item in a ‘pastor’s’ wardrobe. It still is the ‘expected’ attire for many Lutheran pastors in many congregations around the USofA. For me however, it is not.
It isn’t because I think they shouldn’t be worn, quite the contrary. If that is how a pastor chooses to represent the ‘office’ then more power to them! I don’t think they are wrong or right, which of course means I also don’t think that they are necessary. I don’t think that one’s ‘pastoral identity’ can be measured by how they dress.
So then the question is, how DOES one evaluate or measure one’s comfort or acceptance of their ‘pastoral identity’? This is a strange topic for me, since in my 10 plus years of ‘lay’ ministry’ (whatever that is), I have almost from the beginning been called ‘pastor’. So what gives? Do I need to develop my pastoral identity just because I hate wearing clericals?
What do YOU think?
