Pulpits and Barstools

 I have to tell you the last 3 weeks haven’t been that great. I pulled a muscle at the beginning of January while working, and then one Friday when leaving for a weekend getaway, I ended up having that same muscle in my leg (the piriformis) retract on my sciatic nerve. The pain is immense and has begun to take a toll on me both physically and mentally. 

Fast forward to Friday night when a breath of freshness came to me. I limped out of the brewery after several hours of working and sat down at the corner of the bar. A “mug clubber” was sitting next to me as I drank my beer and attempted to breathe through my pain. As we sat there, a group of regulars came in and sat down. As it turned out, I learned that the guy sitting next to me was a new youth pastor in town. 

I immediately said, “God bless you for doing that, man.” He looked at me with a bit of confusion and said, “Thank you. You sounded empathetic when you said that.”  

I began to tell him about my 14 years as a youth pastor and why I jumped from that to brewing. This only added to his confusion and we didn’t discuss it much more. But as we went on about our conversation, he lamented here and there about a few things and what he struggled with within the church. 

Something struck me ... I mean hard. It was genuinely like being hit by something. As he was paying his tab, I said, “Hey man, if you ever need to just bitch and moan about what’s happening, text me, come get a beer, and then do just that. I don’t care what I’m doing. I’ll make that time. You don't need to carry that stuff with you or take it home to your significant other. It will do serious damage.” 

Again Baffled, he said, “Thank you. I appreciate that. And I’ll do that.”

In that moment, I realized that pastors have very few places, if any, where they can do that. Where they feel safe. Where they can rant, rave, rage and say whatever they need to say and do it without judgment…

If you’re in the church, this should be concerning to you: that your pastors may feel more at home amongst barstools and beers than pews and pulpits. But then again, so did Jesus.