It's worth what you pay for..

In the pastorate you find yourself giving advice or counsel on a regular basis and on wide variety of issues. People may ask you about marriage and family or church finances or leadership or how to make the copier stop doing whatever it is doing. You might find yourself being asked about legal issues, family structure issues, sexual orientation issues or even biblical issues. At least for me I often find myself over the tips of my skis .

The pastorate is one of the places where the expectation is that you know what someone ought to do. The reality is that you don't. It is not that you are ignorant or informationally challenged, it is that you cannot know about all those things. You might know a little about many issues but that is just enough to cause trouble. Interestingly often people are not willing to be referred, they want you to tell them because you are handy and you are right there right now. They are looking for the sound bite format solution. Again at least with me, there is not quick 5 minutes solution available.

It is the level of expectation that surprises me. I ought to know and if I don't - why don't I know this? What is the problem? No problem, just reality. I am not sure there is another occupation, may be doctor, may be not, that has such a diverse set of expectations as the pastorate. It keeps it interesting. The challenge is not to buy into the expectation and promise what you cannot deliver. So I promise to stay within the areas I can confidently answer and with rest, punt. You want to know about Malachi or Jude, I am your man. You want to know about investment strategies or if the building's footings can support an second story, well we can go looking for someone together.