{"id":326,"date":"2022-04-04T15:14:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T19:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pfo:8888\/?p=326"},"modified":"2025-07-18T10:26:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:26:49","slug":"toiling-in-the-spotlight-of-public-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/resources\/news\/toiling-in-the-spotlight-of-public-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"\uacf5\uacf5 \uc0ac\uc5ed\uc758 \uc2a4\ud3ec\ud2b8\ub77c\uc774\ud2b8\ub97c \ubc1b\uc73c\uba70 \uc218\uace0\ud558\uae30"},"content":{"rendered":"

One week after Westminster John Knox Press<\/a> published her first book, Dr. Sarah Bereza<\/a> elected to start her online book tour Wednesday as the guest of the Presbyterian Foundation<\/a>\u2019s the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, host of the twice-monthly online conversation Leading Theologically<\/a>. Watch their engaging half-hour talk by clicking here<\/a> or here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

Bereza\u2019s book is \u201cProfessional Christian: Being Fully Yourself in the Spotlight of Public Ministry<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Bereza, who\u2019s been a professional church musician since the age of 11, said the book is based on interviews with about 50 people involved in ministry, education and other professional endeavors.<\/p>\r\n

It\u2019s based in part on her experience as a professional church musician, \u201cwhere I had to show up no matter how I felt and lead worship and be \u2018on.\u2019 I am an energetic person when I\u2019m leading my choir. I\u2019ve never felt like that was fake,\u201d but she has felt sick and \u201cstill had to show up and lead worship when I just want to stay home and go to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat does it mean to have integrity,\u201d she wondered out loud, \u201cwhen you\u2019re showing up to minister and worship God but you don\u2019t want to?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

While pursuing her doctorate, she interviewed musicians serving mostly fundamental churches, \u201cwhere the vocalist not only wants to communicate the true words [of a song or hymn], but they want to communicate with their body and posture, what musicologists call \u2018performance practice,\u2019\u201d Bereza told Hinson-Hasty. \u201cThey want to communicate that they themselves believe those words are true \u2026 You\u2019re not supposed to have a monotone face on. You\u2019re supposed to be emoting, but what if you don\u2019t feel like it?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHow do you do all that with integrity?\u201d she asked. \u201cThis book comes out of that question and ends up exploring a lot more questions,\u201d including \u201cHow can you be truly yourself in ministry, given that people want you to be a role model? Depending on your denominational setting, they think you\u2019re extra special close to God, or whatever it is in their understanding of what it means to be in ministry.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOr maybe you\u2019re a schoolteacher and you\u2019re supposed to follow all the rules of the school. Maybe you signed up for that and maybe you didn\u2019t. How do you do that with integrity?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Especially vulnerable, she said, are those \u201cwho can be hired and fired on religious grounds,\u201d a group that ranges from pastors to the French teacher at the local sectarian school.<\/p>\r\n

People involved in professional ministry are of course helping others during \u201cthe important moments in people\u2019s lives,\u201d including weddings, funerals, baptism and death beds. Bereza interviewed chaplains in military and hospital settings who told her that their chief goal ministering to dying people and their friends and family is \u201cno matter what I think about things, I am there for that person, and so I have to put the focus on that person.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSometimes the spotlight of public ministry,\u201d she said, \u201cis the wholehearted focus on someone else no matter what you think.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

When he was in parish ministry, Hinson-Hasty would hear from members and friends who wondered why he wasn\u2019t smiling more often during worship. But sometimes during worship, a smile on the pastor\u2019s face is inauthentic. Pastoral search committees are among those saying they are looking for authenticity in their new called pastor, he said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI just think that\u2019s not a very useful value for us to aspire to,\u201d Bereza replied. \u201cThe issue with authenticity is there are so many things that authenticity means that sometimes it doesn\u2019t mean much at all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

For many worship leaders, \u201cour most common way to use authenticity is to be spontaneous and natural, like the first thing that comes to our heart is the truest of things,\u201d she said. \u201cBut guess what: In ministry we aren\u2019t able to do that a lot of times. As Christians we are supposed to deny our first impulses because our first impulses are often contrary to the love of God and to the love of our neighbor \u2026 If you are authentic to your spontaneous feelings, you can end up in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Sincerity, she said, \u201ccan be a helpful way to think about what is true, or a way to have integrity in a real-time situation \u2014 like in this conversation, which is live. If we were recording a podcast with an opportunity to edit, that\u2019d be different than right now talking to y\u2019all on Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\u201cPeople say that\u2019s why they love the show,\u201d Hinson-Hasty said. \u201cThey love it live.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIn this kind of setting where we are in a real-time ministry moment, I think sincerity is really important, because sincerity gives us the opportunity to really think about being ourselves while also being a professional. It\u2019s about being in line with your values and it\u2019s about being appropriate to the specific moment we\u2019re in,\u201d she said. \u201cTo me that\u2019s a much more helpful value than spontaneous authenticity.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Still, \u201cvulnerability is an important facet of ministry,\u201d she said. \u201cWe lead as ourselves. We aren\u2019t leading as stick figures. We aren\u2019t leading as little demigods. We aren\u2019t leading as the robe we put on. That may be part of who we are, but it\u2019s not the whole of who we are.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWith discretion, we can be vulnerable about difficulties in our lives \u2014 even hard things in our lives \u2014 because sharing things in our lives is one way to minister to people, with of course the caveat of finding that area between over-sharing and being a stone where no one can see the emotions on our face at all,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a big area between those two.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThanks for who you are,\u201d Hinson-Hasty told Bereza before asking her to pray to conclude their time together. \u201cThe bright light, the glow \u2014 it is real,\u201d he told the audience.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGod, you have made us all to glow so brightly and to be so full of your Holy Spirit,\u201d Bereza told the Almighty. \u201cWe pray you would lead us to that fullness of self, so that we can better love you and our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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