Friday is for Heart Songs
Ran across a great quote today from Dutch-Catholic Priest, Henri Nouwen, who in 1972 wrote these words in his book, The Wounded Healer:
It is a painful fact indeed to realize how poorly prepared most Christian leaders prove to be when they are invited to be spiritual leaders in the true sense. Most of them are used to thinking in terms of large-scale organization, getting people together in churches, schools and hospitals, and running the show as a circus director. They have become unfamiliar with, and even somewhat afraid of, the deep and significant movements of the Spirit. . . .
But how can we avoid this danger? I think by no other way than to find the courage to enter into the core of our own existence and become familiar with the complexities of our own house, discover the dark corners as well as light spots, the closed doors as well as the drafty rooms, our confusion will evaporate, our anxiety will diminish, and we will become capable of creative work.
I think Nouwen is right, at least on this point. Becoming a pastor rather than a circus director of the various ministries and programs of a church is a process of knowing who we are in Christ and probing a bit deeper every day, relentlessly looking at our own need for Jesus and the gospel, unashamedly anchoring our hearts in the desperation of our need so that we are full of Jesus rather than ourselves and offering Jesus and not our experience or wisdom or programs for the needs of others. The wounded healer ministers from weakness—weakness that is strong as steel because of the power of the cross over all our wounds.
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