A Voice in The Wilderness

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If people don't take the preacher seriously, they are not likely to take the message seriously.
— Steve Brown

One of my pastor friends and his wife attended his wife's twentieth high school reunion. His wife later reported to him that as she was talking to an old friend, catching up on their lives, she mentioned she had married a pastor.

As soon as the words were out, a look of pain crossed her friend's face.

"I'm so sorry," her friend said, her voice softening to a whisper. "I'm sorry because sex is sooo wonderful."

Perceptions like this make me angry. People tend to see pastors as nice people who say nice things to nice people. We certainly don't know anything about the real world! We've become irrelevant in many people's eyes.

And whatever form it takes, I take it personally. Nothing ruffles my feathers more than being dismissed or patronized. I'd rather preach to an audience that's angry at me than one that thinks all I do is carry a black umbrella and attend women's teas.

I've had to come to terms with this fact about our culture, including much of the church culture: often we pastors aren't taken seriously. That's a problem not because of who I am, but because of who I represent. If people don't take me, the preacher, seriously, they are not likely to take my message seriously.

So I've done more than come to terms with this fact; I've also learned how to fight it.

We should begin by noticing a few of the reasons we're not taken seriously. Some reasons, of course, have deep social or spiritual roots. These we can't do anything about.

For instance, I'm convinced many dismiss us because of a supernatural struggle in their lives. After I had written my first book, I was interviewed by a radio station in Boston. ...

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