The Irrelevant Non-Factors

I saw this article about how Barak Obama has weathered the storm around the words of his pastor. I got to asking myself why we, the people, have so quickly moved on from this seemingly political fire storm.

Is it because we are that intelligent so as to recognize communication that is hurtful and bad? Are we that gracious that we can simply forgive when stuff like this that can have painful impact? Is it that we don't let the candidate's "team" influence our perception and belief of the actual mission, vision, values, and policies of the actual candidate?

Or is that we, the people of America, don't really give a rip about the words of pastors? Have pastors/ministers/rabbis/priests lost the ear of the people in general? Not necessarily in the political realm, but most importantly the moral, relational, spiritual gut where God calls us calls us to serve and lead. Spiritual leaders as such are moving towards (if not already there) to the periphery of society as it relates to "heart and soul" influence of adults, teenagers, and children all over our land.

Pastors appear to be a non-factor. Pastors are seemingly at best a side show in the chaos of life having been cast there because of the circus act of televangelism and the suburban perception that pastors are more concerned with bodies, bucks, and buildings as opposed to the poor, downcast, and hurting. The opinion is pastors are more concerned with slick programming and less with discipling people.

I hate that.

But, and that's a big but, I am super hopeful about a new generation of emerging pastors (old and young) that are passionate about leading the pastorate back to relevance through peace making, social justice, and servant leadership (as well as, prayer, preaching, and worship services).

Here's to re-expanding the Kingdom so that we are relevant factors in the heart, mind, and soul of people for sake of Jesus.