Something you will likely never hear your pastor say, but something in the minds of many seminary graduates:
“I don’t know if there is a god; I don’t think we know much at all about Jesus; I’m pretty sure there is no Hell.”
This, a paraphrase from a once young graduate I watched grow up in the church who, before seminary, knew quite a lot about all of these “realities”.
I’m not sure whether he became a pastor or not because congregations are market forces which demand everyone in their Christian enterprise know quite a lot about these “realities”.
In other words, what one should know and what there is to know don’t matter much, mainly because congregations are never ready to grow up, to graduate; they, the laity, of all things, tell folks what they should know. Often, pastor’s go with the flow because no one can swim up Niagara Falls.
Just a thought.
