Market-Driven Pastor? . . . Market-Driven Church? . . .

 Hard questions are a gift to the Body of Christ. We have to ask the hard questions of ourselves. We have to ask the hard questions to each other. Those hard questions are good for us. They make us think. They can  reset our bearings where they need to be reset. They can even force us to stop and "reboot."

One of the questions I constantly need to be throwing into my own face is this: "Who's pulling your strings?" I know who should be pulling my ministry strings. . . those "ministry strings" being that which guides me through every minute and every nook and cranny of every day. But life in our consumer-oriented and market-driven world can feed the tension between humbly following Christ and building one's brand. If you don't believe me, just spend some time reading Tweets. . . both your own and others. It's a very real tension. In my case, I need to keep looking up the strings to see who or what's on the other end.

Some food for thought. . . that might just fuel some difficult questions. This morning I read these powerful words of reminder from Eugene Peterson's memoir, The Pastor: "If I am going to stay true to my vocation as a pastor, I can't let the 'market' determine what I do."

The great irony here is that many of us won't ever think to tap into Peterson's seasoned wisdom by reading he memoir. . . after all, "He's too old. . . He's irrelevant. . . He even tucks his shirt in." Well, if you think that, you've already let the market determine what you do. Perhaps you've even let the market determine who you are.