Artisanal Pastor

Millennials have led the way in the revival of the artisan spirit. We’ve taken a generic cup of coffee and turned it into the single origin pour-over. We’ve taken the fast food burger and turned it into the gourmet burger shack. We’ve taken the heart back from big production and put on our own micro-insta-filtered-experience-driven spin on it.

If the generation before us swung the pendulum towards efficiency and production we’ve shifted the gaze back towards art and form -although one could argue for the sake of appearance…not fulfillment. That’s a conversation for another day.

In many ways, curating the artisan value can only better society. Humanity is fulfilled when we get to co-create. Nothing defeats a soul more than monotonous and under-appreciated work. Why do you think so many lower middle class factory workers are longing for a great hope to save them? Their bodies are beaten. Their minds are falling apart. And all for what?

We find ourselves a hundred years away from Ford’s invention of the assembly line. Yet, his vision of efficient production has only grown. One of the original lineman’s words are eerily prophetic about today. “The machine I’m on goes at such a terrific speed that I can’t help stepping on it in order to keep up with the machine. It’s my boss.”***

The machine is our boss. Phew.

Ford offered double the average pay at the time which lured in the laborers that had went on strike for the “in-humane” practices of assembly work. At that time, it was clear that pulling someone away from creating to simply producing was a crime. A larger paycheck can cover a multitude of sins, right?

The overarching cultural shift towards artisanal living is big deal.

The baker is going back to baking bread.

The coffee roaster is going back to making a cup of coffee.

The businesswoman is starting a local, small business.

The question I’ve been asking these days is -then- what does the pastor go back to?

We’ve created more organization and structure in the modern church than ever before.

We are efficient.

We are fast.

We are big.

Pastors have become producers, project managers, business strategists, and leadership gurus.

What if the third wave pastor is simply being called back to the art of people?

What if they are being called to the pasture to be shepherds instead of cultural warriors?

If we keep building our current reality we will keep missing the people right in front of us. The ones that are in dire need of a place to rest their weariness and share their fears.

Millennials are leaving big cities and creating their own family friendly suburbs. “Some 27,000 millennials between the ages of 25 and 39 left big cities like New York, San Francisco and Houston in 2018 for greener, and less expensive, pastures,”*

We are leaving the mega mansions built for our parents for tiny houses and more affordable humble fixer uppers.**

Is it a stretch then to see millennials are also fleeing from the big churches pastors are producing?

Will your building campaign matter in 15 years?

In order to shift back to an artisanal mindset you have to value the created good as the craft, itself.

The barista looks at a coffee bean and will see it’s purpose and potential beyond the stimulation it provides.

The artisanal pastor, then, will value a person over their production. Period.

This is what I want to discuss with you over the following weeks. What does it look like for us to come back to people? This is not to say programs are not working or that your gathering space is devoid of value.

The current shift in cultural values is worthy of being held in tandem with arguably outdated methods of the body - my body, my family. It is all our responsibility to get the pastor back to the people and off the mile high pulpit you placed her on. She will be better for it and you will too.

Because, I’m daringly believing that pastors still have purpose.

More to come. Happy Friday Friends.

Waiting with you,

Gabrielle

*https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/29/millennials-are-fleeing-big-cities-for-the-suburbs.html

**https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-not-buying-big-houses-mcmansions-real-estate-2019-8

***https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-hundred-and-three-years-ago-today-henry-ford-introduced-assembly-line-his-workers-hated-it-180961267/