The Incarnational Essence of the Pastoral Call

The pastor is the presence of God to his or her people in fleshly form. To many of them, when the pastor shows up it means that God is with them. This is not to say that God was not with them before of course, but the pastor serves as a visible reminder of God’s presence among his people. People need physical reminders that God is present. People need relationships with a pastor because to them (and to God) the pastor is one who provides a physical relationship that is representative of the relationship between God and mankind. It is both over and underestimated the role of the pastor as the representative between God and mankind. It is overestimated when we think that God speaks to people by only the means of the pastor. It is underestimated when we think that God mainly speaks to people individually. Such a view is isolating and individualistic – a concept foreign to the community of the saints. People need to “see” God, particularly in times of tragedy, and the pastor is usually the closest that people come to “seeing” God. The pastor represents the hope and love of God just by his or her own presence during times of uncertainty and tragedy. “One’s being there is in a powerful sense the ‘presence’ of the Church, and of Christ. Why is it so urgently, so pathetically, important that the pastor be there? Because he is the palpable sign of the supportive community and the community’s Lord. Of course Christ has preceded the pastor. Of course, of course. But in such times of crisis these commonplaces are frighteningly distant and abstract. It is the personal character of the Presence in the person of the pastor that is believable and consoling” (Neuhaus 43-4).