Ought to be the most spiritual person in a local congregation—and also the most down-to-earth. The most heavenly and also the most earthy.
The spiritual and physical aspects of reality are not distinct and opposed. They are both, together, the fully connected and whole reality of the universe.
The temptation for the local pastor is to swing to one extreme or the other. The pressure comes both from within and without. Some pastors are more wired for being overly spiritual; others are wired for being overly earthy. Some congregations press their pastors to be more like gurus; others press their pastors to be more like CEOS.
But a good pastor is both. Even though those two things can often feel like opposing magnets, he or she knows that it’s worth the effort it takes to hold them together.
A good pastor is a whole person. A unified person. Because that’s what real people living real lives need if they are going to become whole people. Because that’s what we all are, at the very essence of what it means to be human—spiritual and earthy.
We draw our life from God and live with our feet on the ground.
