What Authority Does a Preacher Have Anymore?
Haddon Robinson
Time has changed the way people view pastors. Perhaps we're not lumped with scam artists or manipulative fundraisers, but we face an Olympic challenge to earn respect, credibility, and authority.
— Haddon Robinson
I attend a Bible study with business executives, and recently one man commented that in all the years he had been in business his pastor had never visited him at his office.
"It's just as well," said another. "A minister would feel out of place in my office." Since I consider myself a minister, I pressed him to explain.
"Most ministers I know come across best visiting the hospital or working in the church environs. That's their turf." He went on to say that he saw the world of the pastor and the world of business people as very different. "The pastor is used to working alone or with a small staff, and his interest is relationships. The world of business is a more impersonal atmosphere dominated by people who put an emphasis on the bottom line.
"Pastors do pretty well with issues of grief and loneliness and interpersonal ethics—not stealing, coveting, fornicating, and so on," he said. "But I don't know too many pastors who address the problems of the individual's conflicting loyalties in groups and organizations."
Another man, who helps run a large construction corporation, agreed and offered an example: "A fellow owed us $500,000 when he died. He and his wife owned a house that was worth $150,000. The question is, do we sue the estate for the money we're due, even if it costs the woman her house as part of the payment for her husband's debt?"
He continued, "If you own the company, you can make a compassionate decision if you want to. But when you're responsible to stockholders, and your job is to collect bad debts, where ...
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