Today’s guest blog comes to us from Adam Marshall for Christianity Today. Adam’s article highlights the most popular – and mostly fictitious – portrayals of ministry.
We should hardly be surprised to find ministers serving, preaching, praying, and leading in the stories we watch, listen to, and read. After all, art imitates life, and pastors are deeply engaged in the business of helping others live well.Sometimes, though, the pastors we encounter in fiction can frustrate us. The corrupt priest, the hateful missionary, the slimy revivalist preaching fire and brimstone—they’re more like caricatures than characters, the hapless victims of lazy writing.
But whether they’re true-to-life portraits or just cardboard cut-outs, these pastors still can teach us about ourselves and our ministry. Here are some of the pastors we’ve all met once upon a time.
THE SAINT
Who He Is: He’s loving. He’s faithful. He’s wise. His congregation adores him. He once beat Satan in hand-to-hand combat. He’s everything a good pastor should strive to be, but he keeps himself humble. Sometimes, he annoys you.
“The Saint” once beat Satan in hand-to-hand combat.
Where You’ll Find Him: The Saint was popular in the Middle Ages, featuring in myths about actual saints and going on pilgrimage as the Parson in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. You’ll also find him smiling beatifically as Bishop Myriel, the gentle priest who forgives Jean Valjean’s theft of the household silver, and then gives him some candlesticks, too, in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.
What He Can Teach Us: There aren’t many Saints in contemporary fiction, and for good reason: they’re just too perfect. While their successes may be enviable, their holiness often makes them feel inhuman. Real pastors have genuine flaws, and that’s okay; in fact, a 2003 study by Pulpit and Pew identified “approachability” as one of lay search committees’ most desired qualities in a pastor. So don’t fret if your halo could use a little polish. Odds are, your people love you for it.
THE ZEALOT
Who He Is: With a bible in one hand and a sword in the other, the Zealot lives by the motto convert at all costs. Prideful, obstinate, callous, and inhumane, he’s so dead set on saving sinners from hell that he can’t see how his own fire burns them.
Where You’ll Find Him: The Zealot is a shoe-in for a story’s villain. You may have met him as Nathan Price in Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling novel The Poisonwood Bible, where he strives to single-handedly “save Africa for Jesus.” He also appears as the fanatical Father Bain in the hit Starz series Outlander(based on the popular books by Diana Gabaldon).
What He Can Teach Us: Writing Zealots is an amateur move: they’re uncomplicated, and designed solely to provoke audiences’ distaste. Their stories may be intended as cautionary tales about fanaticism’s dangers; however, their cartoonish malevolence reminds us that we expect sin to have a cause and for sinners to need healing. No one buys a Zealot without a good backstory, because we sense that cruelty, pride, and malice, are often responses to pain, insecurity, and fear.
THE GUIDE
Who He Is: When a hero needs help, the Guide delivers. Wise, insightful, but also compassionate, he’s eager to provide a shelter in the storm, an ear in the confessional, or a few hard-won words of sage advice.
Where You’ll Find Him: In high school, you may have met him as Romeo and Juliet’s Friar Laurence, the priest who secretly marries the play’s ill-fated lovers. Sci-fi fans, meanwhile, know him as Shepherd Book, the enigmatic preacher from Joss Whedon’s Firefly.
What He Can Teach Us: Trust in clergy may be sinking; however, the Guide’s continued presence in popular culture shows that many still view pastors as vital sources of support, comfort, and wisdom—and not just when tragedy strikes. If you want your people to see you as a Guide, keep your door open, your ears attentive, and your judgments sound.
Click here to read the remaining three kinds of fictitious pastors.
Your partner in ministry (and non-fiction),
Nelson
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