Still a Pastor, and you can be too

I am in week two after leaving the role of senior pastor to work with students again and it has been a whirlwind. Appointments, trainings, and a whole lot of prayer have occupied a lot of my time. Last weekend I was back in Vancouver and saw a student from our old church. “Pastor Shaun!” he called across a parking lot. With a little smile, I said, “Nope, just Shaun.” He insisted that I’ll always be that, and I conceded that he could still call me that. But it is strange after nearly a decade as a “pastor” to all of a sudden be, “just Shaun.”

Tonight I went to what is quickly becoming our favorite place to eat in Eugene and since I was by myself, I sat at the long table in the middle a few seats down from an older (than me) gentleman. Since the Seahawks game was on, I asked if he was a fan. “Not really, I prefer college. I just follow the Duck players where they go.” A man after my own heart. (insert fist bump here)

That began a conversation that started with football, but ranged to loss, pride in children, grief, struggle, and then there came a point as he shared about his wife who had passed that I found myself thinking, “I guess I am still pastor Shaun.”

But here’s the truth, a truth I was forgetting in the moment, even though I tried to preach it for 9 years as a “pastor”, that word is far less a role than it is an opportunity. And that opportunity is not for one or a few people per church. That opportunity belongs to anyone who follows Jesus.

Though I still work in ministry, I’m not “a pastor”, but I can still pastor anywhere I sit. Tonight it was with a stranger (not anymore), who needed someone who was willing to listen and ask questions. To my knowledge, he doesn’t know Jesus, but I hope tonight, he experienced Him. I hope he will take me up on my offer to have another beer on another night.

And if you are reading this and are a follower of Jesus, this is your opportunity as well. You too can “pastor”. You don’t need to preach (those are teachers), you don’t need to lead a church (those are apostles and prophets), and you don’t need to be able to lead every person you meet to Jesus (those are evangelists). But you can pastor.

I know some church traditions make a big deal about who can have that title, but I’m not interested in the title. I hope you can find the joy of the action. Think verb instead of noun.

I think what I’m trying to say and show is what Paul had to say to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:35:

In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (CSB)

Because it really is.