A recent edition of Time magazine included a “happiness index of U.S. workers” that lists the happiest people according to their occupations.  Two of the three jobs with the highest “average happiness score” were clergy and firefighters [1]. This finding caught my attention because the first occupation I am called to do, and the second I have always wanted to do. 

God called me to preach when I was thirteen years old, and that direction was as clear to me as if God had spoken audibly to me.  Prior to that calling, I had planned to be a full-time English teacher and a volunteer fireman.  My father had been a fireman, and I have vivid memories of his responding to emergencies when the signal sounded.  On several Halloweens I dressed as a fireman.  In a somewhat odd scene, our family sometimes shared lunch at the scene of a “practice” fire when the fire department burned down dilapidated buildings. Even today, I am debating whether my schedule will allow me to be a volunteer firefighter in my community. 

The more I think about the Time magazine findings, the more I am not surprised that clergy and firefighters ranked so high in the happiness scores.  Both face matters of life and death, whether dealing with salvation from sin or a rescue from a fire.  A rescue from a fire pales when compared to eternal salvation, but both professions work to save lives. Clergy and firefighters alike serve professions that make a real difference.     

I do have a concern, though. I suspect that in many cases, firefighters are better at their jobs than most clergy are at fulfilling their callings.  Here are my reasons for thinking this way, listed in no particular order:

1. Firefighters better recognize the urgency of their role.  The signal sounds, the details are given, and the firefighter springs into action.  He must be focused on the task at hand, for a distracted firefighter is a dangerous one.  In fact, everything else stops until he returns from dealing with the emergency.  

I wish such were the case with clergy.  We have the life-giving message of Christ to proclaim to the world.  The signal has already sounded (Rom. 3:23, 6:23), and we know the details about the emergency — millions die every year, only to spend an eternity in hell. Why then do so many clergy seldom get outside of the church to tell a non-believer about Jesus?  Genuine growth of the church would increase dramatically if pastors would recognize the emergency, drop everything else, and do personal evangelism for a while.      

2. Firefighters better understand the value of teamwork.  From the truck driver to the pump operator to the Rapid Intervention Team (ready at any moment to rescue a brother firefighter), every firefighter is critical to the team.  More importantly, the other firefighters recognize that fact.  They are trained to watch each other’s back, seldom if ever facing a raging fire alone. The best firefighters, in fact, are those that are both trained and trusted like brothers. 

Clergy, on the other hand, tend to be lone rangers.  Not only are we not trained to be team players, but we often do not trust one another enough to work together.  Sometimes we are simply too arrogant to ask for help.  The danger is clear: clergy who work alone are the most liable to being shot down in the spiritual battle that ministry entails. 

3.  Firefighters are often better trained.  Firefighters are required to complete training that includes book knowledge and practical training.  Only when the potential firefighter gives evidence of his ability is he granted permission to be an official firefighter.  Even then, he is expected to complete recurrent practical education courses in order to stay current in his profession. Veteran firefighters walk alongside new firefighters, teaching them even as they together fight a fire. 

I am a seminary professor, but I do not pretend that we adequately train future ministers.  We can provide head knowledge, but we offer too little practical training. Indeed, we cannot offer the practical training needed apart from the support of the local church, where most praxis should occur under the care of a veteran pastor.  But, pastors are seemingly too busy, do not care enough, or do not know how to take on this task — and future generations of pastors will be weaker because of that fact. 

4.  Firefighters love what they do.  Firefighters love the exhilaration of tackling and defeating a fire.  Actually, they love the fire station, the fire trucks, the fire equipment, the firefighter uniform, their firefighting squad — almost everything associated with their task.  They risk their lives every time the signal sounds, but they do so because they believe in what they are doing.  They know that lives depend on them.   

Perhaps here is where I am most concerned about young clergy.  Young pastors recognize that the North American church is in need of much reformation.  We are reaching few non-believers, and our growth is being outpaced by the population.  Church members sometimes live so much like the world that non-believers see the church as irrelevant.  I fear, though, that many young pastors see the church in such a negative light that they would not list their profession high on the “happiness index.”  Many simply do not love the very people they are called to shepherd.

Consequently, they try to change a church they do not love — and then blame the church when the congregation does not follow their unloving leadership.  The pattern is repeated when the pastor who is wounded in one church carries his scars into the next one, makes the same mistakes again, and grows bitter against the church that Christ does love. 

Young pastor, learn to love God’s church.  Lives are depending on it — including yours.