Mr. Greatheart and This Metaphorical Table

What's It All About?

Feb 6

When Greatheart’s Table launched nearly two years ago, the first post, which outlined who I was and the goals I had in mind, trickled out to five adventuresome readers. There are far more of you now, most of whom, though, have not read that initial post. This post therefore is meant to fill in the gaps for you. Even the original five, if they are still with me, might learn something.

As you may already know, I’m a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. I grew up in Loveland, Ohio, the youngest of four siblings. My parents faithfully took me to our small United Methodist Church, where in time I came to understand faith as well as the beauty of genuine small church community.

In 1974 I left Loveland to attend Michigan State University to become an engineer. I attended the nearby United Methodist Church where I was well cared for but theologically puzzled. Friendship led me to East Lansing Trinity Church which nurtured in me a love for preaching and for missions.

I soon realized that I was not cut out to be an engineer and shifted my major, temporarily, to “undecided.” “Confused” would have been a better descriptor. I processed this confusion with my good friend Barb one night, and as she listened I told her the one thing I knew for certain. “I’ll never be a pastor,” I said. She eventually agreed to marry me and, thankfully, did not hold me to that pledge.

Out of college I taught English to seventh graders, and Barb and I attended a small Presbyterian Church outside Cincinnati. Teaching grew on me, but our missionary impulses and the encouragement of the church led us away to Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.

My resistance to pastoral ministry finally evaporated. In November of 1985 I was ordained and installed as the pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church in Bradenton, Florida.

I pastored there until 2010 when I became the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oviedo, Florida. In the midst, God radically changed me through a work of his grace, a story that would require a book to tell.

This reluctant pastor has learned far too much through his mistakes. Yet God has given me a love for a role that I once did not want and which, over the years, I’ve often sought to escape. Pastoring, like parenting, has been an experience of joy as well as a cauldron of struggle and lament. I’ve experienced unexpected encouragement, and debilitating loneliness. I’ve persevered, but only by the grace of God.

And out of all of this has been birthed Greatheart’s Table.

The name is meant to center us in our pastoral role. John Bunyan, in Part Two of his allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress,

introduces readers to Mr. Greatheart. Mr. Greatheart’s role was to guide and accompany pilgrims on their journey to the Celestial City. That is, he fulfilled the fundamental role of the pastor. The expectations now placed on pastors to be more than this obscures this vision. Greatheart’s Table is an invitation to sit together, around a table as it were, to encourage one another in the core, Greatheart-like, pastoral impulses that led us to become pastors in the first place.

Greatheart’s Table therefore exists to encourage pastors. Pastors struggle to keep up with the demands contemporary church culture places upon them. They are often lonely and frequently overwhelmed. The standards of success are vague and always out of reach. Their joy in the gospel is battered and sometimes lost. Pastors need to know that they’re okay and are doing a good work, even if that work does not match what they or others hoped it to be and especially when they prove to be mere humans facing superhuman expectations. We will fail, and our weaknesses and limitations will disappoint us and others. But God knows us, is okay with us, and uses us to care for his beloved people. I write to encourage pastors, with all our imperfections, to find joy in pastoring.

Along the way I’ve found that there is a resonance in all of this for those who are not pastors. So though I write for pastors, many others find their own longing for presence and community fed. I’m encouraged by this broader impact and welcome this broader audience.

I didn’t want to be a pastor, and quite often I convince myself that I’m not very good at it. I know that I’m not alone in these thoughts. I also know that I would not have persevered at being a pastor apart from the encouraging and wise words of others, often spoken across a table, grounding me in my calling. Greatheart’s Table is a place where I can repeat those words to myself and to others that I might again take them to heart, and perhaps encourage others to do so as well.

I’m glad you’ve joined us.

Thanks for reading Greatheart’s Table. If you’d like to help support this work, you can do so by dropping a few coins in my tip jar here. Thanks!

Bradenton is a town I visited often as a child and to which I swore I’d never return. So of course God, in his own delightful way, led me to be what I was never to be in a town to which I was never to go.

This book, I should add, has been in fact written. If you know a publisher or agent who might be interested, I have a proposal to send!

Yes, you should read it. You can get Pilgrim’s Progress for free in various locations on the internet, but I encourage you to find a nice copy you can mark and revisit, such as this.