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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2008 Gary Hardaway
680 words

PASTOR FLUNKS QUALIFICATIONS FOR SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

By: Gary Hardaway

Though much loud clamor has recently surrounded Chicago “Pastor,” Jeremiah Wright, most of the noise concerns his political significance. How will he affect the presidential election? I think its time to change the key questions.

Is Jeremiah Wright actually a pastor? What does a pastor do? How does a pastor lead? What sort of person should a pastor be? Christian sources, especially the New Testament, provide answers that are readily available to the interested inquirer.

The word pastor has its roots in the ancient occupation of shepherd. Though we don’t have many shepherds these days in our culture, we know that a shepherd takes care of the flock, watches over it, and makes sure all the sheep are well fed and watered. In some wilds the shepherd resolutely protects the vulnerable sheep from animals of prey, such as wolves. Jesus himself told his followers, “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” A good shepherd is totally committed to the welfare of each animal in his care.

The apostle John records a poignant conversation between the risen Jesus and his fallen disciple Peter, who, out of fear and cowardice, had publicly denied three times that he knew Jesus. Three times Jesus asks the conscience-stricken Peter, “Do you love me?” Peter answers “Yes” each time. Jesus instructs him to “Feed my lambs, . . . . Take care of my sheep . . . . and feed my sheep” (John 21).  Peter soon became a model pastor and international Christian leader. He increasingly became more and more like his spiritual tutor, Jesus.

Later Peter passed on pastoral instruction to a new generation of spiritual leaders: “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers . . . eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (I Peter 5). The pastor is a humble servant, a gentle caregiver, a quiet role model.

Such a ministry requires special character development. Scripture lists some essential qualifications for spiritual leadership.

“The overseer must be above reproach . . . temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable . . . not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome. . . . He must have a good reputation with outsiders.” 

Jeremiah Wright fails most of the above criteria. His rage and race-hatred bring disgrace on himself, his office, and the church. His high-pitched accusations that whites  invented AIDS and push drugs in order to eradicate blacks are contemptible.

A visit to the church website reveals more frightening information. The church embraces “black power and black theology,” as expounded by Dr. James Cone in various books. Writes Cone, “The goal of black theology is the destruction of everything white.”  Whites – Christian and non-Christian – are inherently evil and deserve destruction.

I am white as are my wife, children and grandchildren. Billy Graham is white. Pope Benedict XVI is white. According to black theology, our God is a racist construction. It is not clear to me whether we can be saved from our “sin” of whiteness. Perhaps there is hope if we learn to hate ourselves and join the crusade for black power.

There is little difference in spirit between this ideology and that of Osama bin Laden. There is no resemblance to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, nor Peter, the eminent leader who learned to pastor, despite his serious failure. Until we see heartfelt transformation from Jeremiah Wright, the title “Pastor” remains in quotes.

Gary Hardaway is executive director of Summit School of Ministry in Northwest Washington. He holds a Ph. D in foundations of education and is a member of the National Association of Scholars.  He has taught in universities in the USA, Lithuania and Canada. "Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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