I very rarely link to other posts. Mostly it is because I think the stuff I say is pretty amazing, and you don’t need to read what other people say. I have to link to this post though. This dude, Eric, who used to be a paid pastor and quit to get a real job wrote a post called cake on his blog. He explains that pastoring is a super easy and usually pretty fun job. Being the spiritual boss of other people sounds pretty fun and awesome to me! Getting paid for it would be a total bonus!

My favorite part was the comments. There were some great ones on his post, a few on Alan’s link to his post, and even an awesome response post by some dill-hole pastor guy (you know you hit a nerve when you get a response post).

I like that so many pastors rose to defend their stupid “jobs” as important and hard. I get it. You don’t want people to start thinking your job is easy and therefore you shouldn’t get paid for it, or at least not get your annual raise. I know. I make a case for my annual raise every year. To defend your job you must explain all the important stuff you do. I guess for pastors these things are:

• relationship counseling
• personal discipleship
• navigating the tenuous waters of organizational leadership
• visitations
• pastoral counseling
• program functions
• mentoring
• leadership
• working with members and guests
• study schedule

That list came from a guy with a double bachelor’s, an mDiv, and a PhD, so you know it is legit. I’m glad he explained to me that these are the things pastors are supposed to do. The odd thing is that I thought these were mostly things that everyone was supposed to do (except the organizational leadership stuff, which is a huge waste of time, and no one should be doing it). I thought that a good pastor, elder, mature believer would be able to lead and disciple others to do this stuff, thus freeing him from doing what everyone was supposed to be doing for each other. I thought we were a body that worked together to help one another grow toward Christ. Maybe a pastor’s job wouldn’t be so hard if he was an actual biblical leader. If he served others in a way that taught them to serve others, but I wouldn’t know. I only have an associate’s degree in computer science. This guy is among an elite group who “are priviledged [sic] to be ministers have a higher calling”

Kudos to Eric for having the balls to walk away from a completely unbiblical job that is designed to promote the divide between the elite and the rest of us. Kudos to him for saying something that called out people who are taking advantage of other people, for calling out people who have significantly inflated their own self-importance. I think he tends to be a bit more generous in his dealings with those on the other side of the fence, but I really appreciated his post and, even more importantly, his example of seeing the problem and walking away from it, even when it meant some really tough and scary stuff for him and his family.