You are not a pastor, you are not fat enough!

One day last week, I was celebrating with around 300 children and several other adults from the local community-we all came together to celebrate a Christmas party---even though it was in October. At this party, the children many who are orphaned played soccer, net ball, colored, and played in a jumpee. One of the children asked me what I did back in the U.S. I told them that I was a pastor. So, there I was with four beautiful children….a girl that I called Fine because when I asked her what here name was she said, “I am fine.” The other children whose English was a little more improved realized the mistake and giggled when I continued to call her “Fine”. They had smiles that where rich with pain yet full of fun and laughter. I could not convince these youngsters that I was a pastor. Why would they think that I was not telling them the truth? It was baffling! It provoked me to tease out the reasons. Why in a country full of people of peace, people who trust, not believe me when I told them that I was a pastor? I began to have a complex. Finally, one of the younger ones was bold enough to share the riddle. He simply said that your belly is not big enough to be a pastor. He simply said, “That I am not fat enough to be a pastor!” Well, I am on the verge of 40 and I do not have a stomach like I used to…so I must admit that it felt good to hear that I was not fat. But, this encouragement was fleeting when I looked beyond myself to examine this comment in light of my purpose of living a life in the way of Christ. Why in a land where so many go hungry, there is a belief in the young ones that a pastor is fat? How sad to think that the Christian pastor is seen as fat---or in their context the one who has plenty. Is the western church influencing our missions to the point that we give to the local pastor and then the goods trickle down like Reagan economics? Or is it that our hearts are so full of greed that even in third world countries there is the same temptation--simply relative to scale---to have more than we really need or to look out for ourselves first. What would it look like if Christians, pastors, myself included, were known more for having less? What would it really look like if Christian pastors and leaders realized their real place in the kingdom? LAST! Not as the ones with a fat belly, but the ones with a thin regard for selfish gain.