Sacred Decision-making

A few days ago, I ran across an online listing for a pastor for a small church in the West.  It contained many of the usual phrases, which are important, but common in this sort of ad: heart for discipleship, servant leader, man of prayer, etc. But then the church got real.  It is located in an area that is definitely not part of the Bible Belt, so the listing read, “This position is not for the faint of heart. It is quite literally a mission field inside of the United States.”  Fair enough, but the church had also apparently experienced problems in the past (I know – completely unique situation).  The ad mentioned the church was in a rebuilding phase and then added, “Our new pastor must be strong in the Lord as well as being a strong leader, not being sacred to make hard decisions. We are looking for a Pastor and his family to come in and be the example of a real life Christian family. With that comes the extreme highs and extreme lows.”  That is not a typo in the blog, although it surely was a typo in the ad.  I’m sure the church wanted a pastor who would not be scared to make hard decisions, but they asked for a man to not be sacred in making hard decisions.

Most people think of something sacred as being holy.  The word is often used to indicate something that can’t be messed with, e.g., a “sacred cow.”  Or we use it to elevate something to a special level simply because it is special to us, e.g., “chocolate is sacred to me.” Quite simply, that means “step away from my chocolate and no one gets hurt!”

At face value, the ad called for someone to not be sacred in making hard decisions, and that’s what I love about it.  To me, that means to get your hands dirty; to lose any holier-than-thou attitude and make the tough calls.  It means not putting yourself above the ugly, fallen world we live in, but figuring out how you’re going to jump in and engage the ugly, fallen people and share the love of Jesus, all the while being ugly and fallen yourself.

None of us is sacred in the sense of being more special than anyone else, but each believer is sacred in the sense that God has saved us by His grace.  We are set apart (the meaning of the word “holy”).  Peter tells us in his first letter, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10) Believers are sacred and set apart in order to proclaim God’s excellencies, so we have sacred work to do.  But we cannot act sacredly (is that even a word?) in carrying out this sacred work.

I also believe each life is sacred, because each of us in made in the image of our Creator.  God gave us life, a wonderful, beautiful gift.  Too often we degrade and abuse this gift because of our choices.  And we cheapen life, even complete discount it, when we accept the acts of abortion and euthanasia, and in the casual taking of life which is all too prevalent in our world (and on our screens).

Believers must make the sacred choices that God would have us make, without approaching the world and the work in a manner that presents us as holier-than-thou.  I guess, in a sense, we are holier-than-thou because we have experienced the saving grace God offers, but that alone should make us humbler-than-thou, because we should realize what great sinners we are and what a great price was paid for our salvation.

So get out there and don’t be sacred … or scared!

As a final note, the ad for the pastor closed this way: “What we need is not a person that is ready to retire, but a Spiritual Leader that is ready to dive in with their whole being, ready to serve and treat this as a duty that God has laid before him. We need a dedicated man who loves people…saved and unsaved. We need a man that is not perfect…even though, if Jesus were available to be our Pastor, we would accept Him!”  So maybe they really do want a sacred decision-maker!