What's a pastor for?

For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Burton's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

By far the most uncomfortable pastoral work I do is with people who want help for relatives in churches that are far away. I once got a call from one such relative who had been elected secretary of a church committee and wondered how she should minute the meeting. Worse are the complaints about pastors who do things I have done. (“My brother says they don’t sing hymns everyone knows. What can we do?”)

Harder still is the task of dealing with relatives of folks who really have been on the receiving end of pastoral incompetence. Better incompetence, though, than malicious intent.