Pastoring In Vegas Is A Lot Like...

Pastoring in Las Vegas is a lot like being a doctor who time travels to the ancient world. Let me explain…

Imagine you’re in medical school. In it you learn about the largest human organ – the skin. It’s designed to keep certain things out (germs), while letting other things pass freely (air, sweat to cool you off, etc.). It’s also designed to hurt when it’s broken or damaged as a means of your own defense (at least partly to teach us to not keep our hand on that hot stove we just touched). You would also learn about hypodermic needles and shots as a means of delivering life-saving medicine to where it’s needed, but only by (painfully) puncturing the skin.

Now imagine you’re fully trained as a doctor and somehow time traveled to the ancient world. You see before you people dying of the very thing you’ve been saved from due to a shot you received (which, of course, hurt at the time). Their symptoms are obvious and painful. Your heart grieves for those around you and you long for them to receive the same cure you’ve been given. Here’s the problem. You’re offering something they’ve never heard of before. They don’t understand the nature of “viruses” and “bacteria” and more than they do “immunizations” or “antibiotics.” So, they are left to interpret your words and actions based on what they are familiar with.

A hypodermic needle would most closely resemble an odd little sword or knife. Those hurt. They’re used to hunt not to heal. All they know is you’re asking them to do something they know will hurt – with something that only seemingly someone wishing them harm would use – and they’ve never associated that with coming from someone they can trust. All they know is you’re asking someone who’s already suffering to let you do something that will definitely cause pain, yet asking them to trust you that it’s for the best.

In a sense, that’s what it’s like to be a pastor in Las Vegas. I constantly meet people suffering from the effects of what the Bible calls “sin,” whether they’d call it that or not. As a Christian bringing God’s Word, I initially call to mind for them other painful experiences with others they associate with their view of Christianity that only made things worse for them. Even in the church, God’s prescriptions – which bear the brand names of “Faith,” “Confession” and “Repentance” – are often seen only for the initial pain or loss that comes from turning away from sin, rather than as God’s ordained means of healing.

If people don’t deeply trust someone, they won’t heed their call to do what is initially painful or costly in order to find greater healing on the other side. As a pastor sometimes that means letting people get to know me as a person – as the guy who DJs or helps start community service organizations – before I tell them I’m also a pastor. For others it’s demonstrating God’s grace as their sin comes to the surface. Yet eventually it’s not me they really need to trust in. That’s where the call to preach and demonstrate the gospel of grace offered in Christ comes in. Nobody will respond to God’s call to confession, faith and repentance as long as they believe God is one they’ll be happier keeping at arm’s length.

Please pray that God allows us to introduce Las Vegans to a Jesus who is worthy of their faith and who offers something worth the temporary discomfort of confession and repentance – namely forgiveness and new life.