The distance between clergy and laity has been something documented by Evangelical Dark Web, and a recent discourse on sabbaticals highlighted a vulnerability in this dynamic where both sides have a hard time understanding each other.Â
Recently, a discourse on sabbaticals where mostly Presbyterian elders expressed their need for an unspecified amount of time off at regular intervals.
Take the confession of Kofi Adu-Boahen, a former Pulpit and Pen writer turn liberal pastor.
The job of a pastor is often reduced to just preaching on Sunday morning, but the difficulty in being an elder of the church is in the relational aspect of shepherding a church. However, the sabbatical enthusiasts presuppose that the difficulties of their vocations are somehow superior than the drain of working regular jobs.
Kofi’s whining is effeminate and showcases him as a mental midget. This mentality reveals him as unfit to be a pastor if for no other reason than the lack of availability. Most jobs aren’t easy, and most people do not get paid to serve God vocationally.
But taking a month-long vacation and pretentiously calling it a sabbatical and playing a woe is me card while badmouthing your church is unacceptable for a man, let alone a pastor.
Pastors work like everyone else and should get a vacation like everyone else. We need not be pretentious about it. And if the needs of the congregation are so great and taxing, the Bible has a prescribed solution in the Book of Acts: deacons.
But whining on social media because of mental weakness is not only a terrible gospel witness, it drives a wedge between pastors and laymen that is unnecessary.
