{"id":2635,"date":"2012-07-16T14:04:42","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T18:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/?p=2635"},"modified":"2012-07-16T14:04:42","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T18:04:42","slug":"can-you-airbrush-life-in-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/can-you-airbrush-life-in-ministry.html","title":{"rendered":"Can you airbrush life in ministry?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Today, I got another invitation to a leadership conference. \u00a0As someone who speaks and attends numerous conferences each year, I can tell you that at times they all start to look the same, sound the same, feel the same.<\/p>\n

But this invitation was different.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glenn Packiam, pastor of New Life Downtown here in Colorado Springs, accurately described what I dislike about conferences:\u00a0An airbrushed vision of life in ministry, leaving pastors lusting of artificial and inflated versions of “congregation” and “pastor.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eugene Peterson calls those unrealistically perfected visions of the perfect church, pastor, and congregation: “ecclesiastical\u00a0pornography.”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that’s a phrase Jesus would appreciate. When we present a spotless exterior, while ignoring our wrinkles and warts, we\u00a0deceive\u00a0ourselves, and forget that God works through the broken, unlovely, and unexpected things in life.<\/p>\n

As Glenn says, we need to create spaces to “BE” the people of God…<\/p>\n

Here’s what caught me about Glenn’s invitation, he writes, “In our age where the sacred vocation of “pastor” seems to be confused with so many other things– CEO, Communicator, Activist– we need a time and a space to be able to explore in community with one another what it means to be “pastor” and to be the “people of God” in our world today.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Take a moment to watch Glenn’s invitation to the New Life Leadership Conference, and\u00a0take a minute and register your whole team\u00a0HERE<\/a>\u00a0for a special rate.<\/strong><\/p>\n