Authority Relocation

In my late twenties I made a shift from pastoring a mid-sized congregation in Minnesota to planting a church in the heart of San Francisco. Beyond the obvious cultural adjustments, the most challenging aspect of this transition was how my identity as a pastor was called into question.

In Minnesota, when people at the gym or grocery store found out I was a pastor, they were kind and deferential. They might ask a theological question, tell me about a personal problem, or sheepishly apologize for cussing in front of me.

In San Francisco, when I told people I was a pastor, the reaction was starkly different. The vocation seemed to provoke outbursts of profanity followed by diatribes about inquisitions, crusades, slavery, and religiously-motivated hate crimes. For many people I met, religion had been a source of hurt rather than healing. They were suspicious of my motives and what my office represented.

Relocation opened my eyes to two disparate views of the pastor’s position. In the Midwest, I was able to capitalize on the inherited authority of my title as “pastor” and the general respect for Christianity within that culture. In my new post-Christian context, I would have to earn credibility and trust by being a living example of what Jesus embodied and taught about life in God’s kingdom. I became painfully aware of my relative lack of formation as a disciple, realizing that I had been groomed for leadership in a system that rewarded me more for my knowledge of Scripture and skills as a teacher than for my lived experience of knowing God and loving people. At first I was devastated by the loss of inherited authority. But gradually I learned to welcome the challenge, to become a beginner again, recognizing that God is interested not only in what I might accomplish as a pastor, but in who I am becoming as a follower of the Way. And I’ve learned to value the hard-earned respect of friends outside the faith, particularly one who said, “I don’t really understand Christianity or what a pastor does, but I do know that you listen and care about people better than anyone I’ve ever met.”

—Mark Scandrette is founding director of ReIMAGINE, a spiritual formation center, and author of Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love (IVP 2011)