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Speaker: Pastors Must Experience Healing, Too
By Stan Friedman
ROSEMONT, IL (February 1, 2006) - Ministers must make the painful journey of
"honest self-awareness" to healing if they are to be excellent pastors,
Aleese Moore-Orbih told the gathering for the Tuesday night worship
service during the Midwinter Pastors Conference of the Evangelical
Covenant Church.
"We cannot lead our congregations to freedom and liberation, and healing
from pain and from shame, unless we ourselves are willing to make that
journey," Moore-Orbih said. Project director for Advocacy for Victims of
Abuse (AVA) of Women Ministries and a former pastors, she told the
gathering of 1,000 that "It's easy to run a church - it's easy to run a
church - without God." All that is needed is the equivalent of making
sure the proper pieces are in place.
Degrees and good ministry and management skills "make a good pastor,"
she said. "But until we factor in a quality walk with Christ, excellence
in pastoral ministry doesn't happen."
Preaching from 1 Cor. 11:1 ("Be ye followers of me even as I also am of
Christ"), she suggested that pastors lead by example. Grand theological
exposition did not make Paul an excellent pastor. "It was his pursuit of
love and grace."
Congregations want – and need - to see living examples of that passion
today, Moore-Orbih said. "One who they can trust and follow and who
allows God to lead and teach and care for them. They don't want people
who can just preach Psalm 23. "They want pastors who will live out the
23rd psalm."
Moore-Orbih asked questions of how pastors can minister to people who
have been abused, molested, raped, and shamed and who have been sinned
against. Realizing that every person carries a wound is essential, she
answered.
Every person feels deficient in some way and experiences "toxic shame, a
traumatic experience that we're never able to get past," Moore-Orbih
said. Ministers need to be honest about that pain and share it with God
in order "to press on with our upward call with our frailties and
failures behind us."
Jesus promised abundance, Moore-Orbih said, but added ministers can't
experience it, "if we are constantly hiding from our pain and shame."
"Don't be afraid to look deep into your souls and admit that you have
those wounds," Moore-Orbih said, because they can be sure that God can
heal anything. There is no predetermined, one-size-fits-all technique to
experience that healing, Moore-Orbih said. "What God wants me to tell
you is that pastoral excellence is on the other side of the door - you
only need open it."
She added that some ministers will need to talk to professional
counselors, others will need spiritual advisors, and others simply need
a friend who can be trusted with confidentiality. "But we all need to
tell Jesus."
"I pray that we will be able to stand in our pulpits on Sunday and say
to our congregations, "Follow me even as I follow Christ," she said.
Throughout her sermon, she demonstrated the words of Ruth Hill,
executive minister of Women Ministries, who introduced her by saying, "I
see in her such a passion, such a compassionate heart for those who are
wounded.
"I have to say I love being in the Covenant," Moore-Orbih continued. "I
hope none of us take it for granted - those of us born into the
Covenant, raised in the Covenant, adopted into the Covenant, married
into the Covenant. Don't let it get like an old marriage," she said to
considerable laughter.
Her sermon was preceded by music that included several rousing pieces by
the North Park University Gospel Choir. Natalie Rivera sang "World on
Fire" while a video played that showed how relatively little it costs to
bring hope to the lives of those in extreme poverty around the world.
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