Busyness and pastors

This post is from the defunct blog “Dying Church”

Preachers, like the members of their congregations, stay busy with many important activities. There are sermons to prepare, people to visit, meetings to attend, classes to lead; on and on it goes. Being a pastor of a church is, after all, a full-time job…

As I noted earlier, however, such "busyness" is one way in which the powers divert people – including pastors – from discerning their work in the world (not to mention one of the ways in which the powers "kill" pastors by burning them out). The busyness created by the institutional church can be an effective way of diverting pastors from the work of the powers, stifling discernment, and keeping the pulpit silent about the ways of death in the world. Busyness, in short, can inhibit truthfulness, not only about the principalities and powers but about the church's own captivity to them. (Charles L. Campbell, The Word Before the Powers)