Know Jack #468 Man of War

The preacher is a stock character in modern literature. His depiction varies little from author to author. You know him. He’s the bespectacled wimp, soft of hand and mind. He’s not much good for anything but trite sayings and quoting scripture. At heart, he’s either an atheist or, at best, an agnostic. His posing as a believer makes him a greedy closet hypocrite. He’s a powerless, rather cowardly sort of fellow.

I’m not saying that man doesn’t exist. I’ve known many preachers personally. I’ve known them in church and out of church, at their best and at their worst. I say without fear of error, the stock creation of so many authors is the rarest of the rare men of the cloth. He’s a good character to throw into the story when you need a coward, a blowhard, or a weakling for the bad guy/evil creature to kill or victimize. The reader gets to see how evil the bad guy is without having to feel bad for the victim.

Am I biased? Of course, I am. That’s why Kit Mann, Hershel Lowe, and Ed Landry exist. Landry’s not exactly a preacher but he’s about the business of trying to set wrong right again. Believe it or not, that is the task assigned to every preacher. There are times when every one of them is as reluctant to plunge in headfirst as Landry. So, are my anti-preachers as stock as all the others? Yes, and for the same reason—they all flow from a single source—the preacher we know or think we do.

The truth both views leave out is that preachers are people as varied and as unique as everyone else. Contrary to myth, preachers do not spring fully formed from God’s forehead. Preachers are first broken by God Then they are forged on the anvil of God’s calling, by the hammer of His Spirit, wielded by every living soul they encounter.

The Bible says, “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” Preachers are too. They are soldiers in a fight they will be a long time winning. They fight for their enemies as well as for their friends. They never forget the souls lost along the way nor do they labor under the illusion that all people go to heaven. They take losses personally under unrelenting pressure from all sides to be perfect. And somehow, they survive intact.