Why Are Mature Pastors Incompetent?

Had dinner with a friend recently. He's a highly regarded pastor in his sixties. Part of our conversation included his lament that he is just not really up to doing his job.

It reminded me of conversations I've had in recent years with a number of pastors who are in their fifties and sixties that included the same refrain. "I'm just not adequate for the job."

Certainly not all pastors are highly competent. Some are in competent. However, I wonder why pastors that are widely regarded as effective, competent and conscientious regard themselves as marginal?

As one said to me awhile back, "In any other profession--medicine, education, science--at this point in our careers we would regard ourselves as at the top of our game. We would be the papa bears, the mentors, the experts. Instead, we constantly struggle with a profound sense of inadequacy and marginal effectiveness."

Do you ever feel that way? Are your feelings reflected back to you from others?

How do you know if you are doing a good job?

Oops. Moving memoir to new location

I am moving the chapters from my in-progress memoir from this blog to God, Rocks, And Souls. Address is godrocksandsouls.blogspot.com. See the link to the right.

(I can't figure out how to put a hyperlink here in the text of the blog.)