Jamin Bradley

Pastors, don’t forget: you are a person before you are a pastor.

There are many careers in society that expect people to act and talk a certain way—and pastors are chief among them. For this reason, pastors are often asked to sand down their edges so that they might fit in a certain box. It doesn’t matter if your edge has nothing to do with morality or ethics, it’s the fact that your edge doesn’t match someone’s perspective of what a pastor is.

You are a unique expression of the image of God. Don’t strip yourself of your personality and personhood, your likes and dislikes, or your hobbies and passions so that you can look more like people want or expect. What people need is the most Jesus-centric version of yourself.

Sure, we’re gonna fit in the pastoral box sometimes. Sure, we need to be careful not to worship ourselves. But if you sacrifice your personhood in order to do your job, you will burn out. It’s too exhausting to pretend to be someone else all the time. It is better to let God baptize your personhood so that all aspects of the image of God in you might be used to minister to others.