Why I am not Down with the Clergy Label
The other day my family and I went to visit some friends from our church who just had a baby. The parking lot at the hospital was full (imagine that) so I carefully pulled into the ‘clergy’ spot.
This of course was a completely legal move since it was a pastoral visit. However, I remain uneasy about the whole ‘clergy’ label.
This got me to wondering why I have such a bad taste in my mouth about the label.
Maybe it is perception I have of the clergy as being skinny effeminate men who wear funny costumes, backwards collars, and look more shady than shepherdly.
Or maybe it is the uncomfortable distinction that is drawn so rigidly by the term between clergy and laity.
Or perhaps still it is the import of Roman Catholic theology and the (unnecessary) office of the priest.
For whatever reason, I tend to associate clergy with a professional religious official who makes his living by blowing enough smoke and banging enough bells so as to blind and deafen all people from hearing the truth. Maybe I’m just jaded.
I will gladly and I pray humbly, go by pastor or shepherd, the one who leads, feeds, and protects the flock of Christ rather than cleric or clergyman. But at the same time I’ll gladly park my sled in a reserved space like this without violating my conscience.
Thankfully this sign served to remind me of what God’s job description for the pastor is and is not (1 Tim. 3 & Titus 1).
I’m curious as to what your initial reaction is to ‘clergy’ and why you suppose it is so.
(btw, I am flashing a secret sign to all other Calvinists out there…you know who you are)
Possibly Related posts:
- Encouragement for pastors from Senior Pastor Jesus
- A Memo to Pastors
- What Every Pastor Needs
- Don’t Waste Your Pulpit
- Preach, Pray or Die
33 Responses to “Why I am not Down with the Clergy Label”
Leave a Reply
About
Subscribe to Updates
Twitter Updates
- @JustinBuzzard Hands down Pillar's Edwards & then Lane. Ferguson's lil book is good as are Keller's & MacArthur's sermons.
- With him there is plentiful redemption (Ps.130.7). This is good for one who's sin is plentiful!
- We are officially in the South- Fried Chicken & Pickles @ the gas station register.
Recent Comments
- Gordan on John Piper on Sermon Prep
- Tweets that mention John Piper on Sermon Prep -- Topsy.com on John Piper on Sermon Prep
- Erik on Running from God and To God
- donsands on Running from God and To God
- Tweets that mention Running from God and To God- Irish Calvinist -- Topsy.com on Running from God and To God
Clergy ~ an old French word based on ecclesiastical latin clerics ‘clergyman’. One who performs religious duties.
Way to indirect for me. My preference would be much like yours, pastor or shepherd. Spending much time in the Chaplaincy has given me reformed taste buds that dislike ambiguous titles. The tend to open the door to anyone who has a religious name and giving them creditability and an open forum to deceive. I like the 5.
Matt, when I met you my first thought was ‘total cleric’…you just exude the cloth.
Erik – You might be interested in reading this article by Doug Wilson about ministers dressing in a distinct way (IE wearing the backwards collar). I definitely see where you’re coming from on this, and personally I don’t have any idea what I believe about these sorts of things, but I thought Wilson’s blog post was interesting.
http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=5323
I’m with you on the “clergy” label. But if you visit hospitals enough you will appreciate the benefit.
(I received the secret sign and am flashing it back!)
I find that I often can’t find a business card to throw up on the dashboard, and thus don’t park in the “clergy” spots for fear of being towed.
However, I also find myself dressing like you when I make hospital visits, and feel uneasy that folks are saying “Clergy? Yeah, right” if I was to use those spots.
Back at ‘ya with the “secret sola” sign.
When I hear the word “clergy,” my first thought it that it is a generic term to accommodate the various types of religious leadership positions across all religious lines (including non-professing-Christian). In a sense, I appreciate the use of the word in the context you’ve described so that I don’t have to read a sign with a list such as “pastors, ministers, bishops, deacons, priests, imams, etc.)
But even within that limited sphere of appreciation for the term, I find myself frustrated with the existence of clergy that are not truly gospel-oriented shepherds.
Dylan, well said. I agree with your point and frustration.
A secret sign to Calvinists? Perhaps the fact that you are wearing a Boston Red Sox cap, indicating that you have an affinity for the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony by Puritans, while subtly using the “red sox” label as code for something akin to “blue hose” to point toward a Scottish background…
Or it could just be the five fingers…
Seriously, I went out and bought (and it was hard to find) a “clergy” sticker for parking since it is near impossible at one particular downtown hospital in Louisville to find a decent space apart from those for ministers.
Of course, this presupposes that ministers still visit the sick. Do they still do that? What about the laity? It seems that Jesus said something about that when he was separating the sheep from the goats.
Clergy? Don’t they have an over the counter medicine for that? I hate the term, but the one I dislike even more is Reverend.
talk about effeminate and then being called “laity”? too close for comfort on that one…
Nice post…you are sounding more like “you know who” than ever before…
:0
I would agree with you on any label that isn’t distinctive in the Bible…
I still can’t believe that we have someone in the whitehouse who let his vice president call the pope the “Holy Father” (happened while da Pope was up here in Seattle) and then turns around and calls himself a conservative Christian.
Talk about the worst of labels for a religious leader…
Does he have parking spot at the hospitals or is he too busy being carried around on his golden throne?
Would love to see that sign at a hospital:
Reserved: Holy Father Parking Only
Too bad it would always be empty…yeah I said it.
Now I have to guess which two words are below so my comment gets posted…seriously erik…it’s like asking the Pope to wear jeans…impossible
I appreciate your post, and the occasion for reflection.
I tend to bristle at the term only because I see it as lumping me together with any and all the unsavory types. Small town ministry has opened my eyes to the need to be set apart from the Christ-denying, gospel-diluting churches of the liberal mainstream.
But if I need a parking space . . . yeh, I’ll take it.
Oh . . . and I forgot . . .
five solas to you too.
(or is it synergistic “peace”?)
You want me to steal home? Or is that the sign for preaching Ephesians 1?
I’m like you, I just don’t take the term clergy seriously. Visions of Father Francis J. Mulcahy from the MASH TV show.
I’m not too offended when “clergy” is used; I kinda see it as a generic term for religious leaders, and in our society, it’s okay if a pastor or someone gets a parking place close to the front to go see someone in the hospital. Not that big of a deal — except that graduating from seminary seems to merit something. Woops, wrong choice of words. LOL Not merit – maybe earn? Nope. Let’s just stick to grace-filled words.
Yep, the five solas. Back at ya.
What’s next? A secret handshake?!?
Doug, if so, you’d be the first to know…trust me.
the 5 fingers … Word.
:p
Clergy and laity reminds me of Jesus saying, “…it shall not be so among you, for you are all brothers…”
That’s a meme that needs to disappear from all christian thinking.
Did I see one of your fingers slightly bent? What does that mean?
Here is one that you would probably only get in some Southern Baptist circles:
“brother Erik”
I wouldn’t mind that title so much, except that no one else called each other in the church by that title. I usually tell folks that they can call me “Steve”, but some call me “Pastor Steve” out of reverence for the calling of a Shepherd rather than putting me on a pedestal.
To be honest the title that creeps me out is “Reverend Thompson”. I have been called that a few times by some people who are in other churches that are more mainline denominational. My knee jerk response is to just say ‘you can call me Steve’.
Okay, my question is this…. how do they know if you are violating the rule or not? Is there some “Pastor” card you get when you start at a church? Do you go to the impound lot, whip out the card and extract a sincere apology for the inconvenience? I just wondered…
Oh, and I got your “points” – all five of them!!
I would also like to protest the term ‘clergy’ on the basis that it is funny sounding.
Further, I associate it with men who have large, detached earlobes that jiggle in a gross way.
regarding your ‘secret solas’, I have superseded this primitive greeting and have developed the power to transmit messages from my mind into the minds of others via my photograph.
Eat hot mental-powers-trump-card.
I believe that you get a special license plate. You have to go to the DMV and get it. They usually mail it to you with in 3 weeks. Just hope that someone else doesn’t get it and park there (if you’ve seen Seinfield then you know what I’m talking about).
I guessed the 5 to be TULIP…
So which is it Min-rev-clerge-pastor Erik?
Solas or TULIP?
btw, I prefer one of MacArthur’s favorite terms, SLAVE!
How’s that for a parking sign, “Reserved for Slaves of Jesus”
Fudge: I have nothing to say other than, “Rack him!”
Mark: let’s go with Tulip. thanks for playing. You should have known that though…unless you are a 4 pointer (or as Sproul says, a 1 point arminian). Totally joking.
I would park in that stall gladly!!
It was TULIP? Ha, and I thought it was for the five solas…
Same here. I guess that I will have to turn in my “Calvinist Credentials” since I immediately thought of the 5 positives (the solas) and not the 5 negatives (TULIP as a response to Arminiansim).
Easy Jerry…no need to turn in credentials. The TULIP is positive in the sense that it defines the gospel–good news (of course it comes out of a negative stream, refuting arminians). There is obviously much overlap between the two (Solas & Tulip)…
The secret secret sign (epignosis) was that this is a monergism t-shirt that has the 5 solas behind displayed behind my hand, the TULIP…oh, that’s deep.
Fellowship of Doulos,
Jeepers, seems to me like TULIP is all good. In fact, you oughta read Piper’s paper on the SEVEN points of Calvinism here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/AskPastorJohn/ByTopic/105/1418_What_does_John_Piper_mean_when_he_says_that_he_is_a_sevenpoint_Calvinist/
Erik, love your blog. It is Bible saturated, Christ exalting, joy producing FUN!
mark
Erik, it’s “ironic” that I read this entry today on the 24th about the clergy. Without a card and a license plate to authenticate my “pastoral” post, I laughingly rolled into Allegent’s “Pastoral Parking Only” slot around 4pm–proud to be recognized for what I may not look to be on the outside and yet fired up to be sharing the Most Excellent News to an elderly woman in need of the Savior on the inside.
Yep, I took advantage of it.
Five.
RC
Hey Erik,
By way of encouragement, I need to tell you, I read your blog like Pulpit or any other blog worth my stewardship of time. It is so stinkin’ cool to see young men (like yourself) taking a stand for the solas, and TULIP!
I’m training up my 18 year-old son and 2 teen-aged daughters in the same. He is entering his sophmore year at Cal. Baptist Univ. (Though he seems to buy reformed theology at this point, having a huge view of God’s sovereignty). It just seems so rare that men take their roles seriously (read, Grudem, Piper, etc., on the value of male leadership) in the family and the local church today. I fear for our country! We seem to be perhaps a generation behind Western Europe…which is VERY sad (with the influence of the feminization of the church, and the infiltration of Islam). Yet God is Sovereign King, Amen?! Maranatha!
What direct advise would you give an 18-year-old man/child who is at a cross-roads? I have given mine, and it is well receivced (by the grace of God!). And, by the grace of God, my son and I have an unbelieably awesome relationship – i.e., he wants to know what I think, and I listen to his hopes and desires. I have tried to build into him a desire to serve God in any/every context. He would love advise from a cool, young “go-giver” (not “go-getter”, mind you).
God bless you and your family, dear brother! My eyes brim with joy at seeing you do what God has called you to!
mark
Reading all the comments about clergy reminded me of some collar and/or robe-wearing “clergy” from the past:
Jonathan Edwards
John Wesley
Charles Wesley
George Whitefield
J.C. Ryle
Not a bad group of men to be identified with, in my opinion.
I used to have one finger bent, but now all five are straight. I don’t like the clergy label and the “clergy” and “laity” divide. I especially don’t like pastors being called ministers – all of us in Christ are ministers.
The word is not the issue. If we throw out “clergy” on the basis of those who have abused it, we should also throw out the word “pastor.”