The pastor as spiritual antagonist : re-assessing the role of South African Baptist pastors in an environment of conflict

Abstract

Baptist pastors in the early years of the twenty-first century find themselves in a challenging yet exciting period of South African history. Much has changed in the socio-political and religious contexts, yet Baptist pastors are still prone to operate according to earlier models of leadership and ecclesiology, with the result that they find themselves in situations of heightened conflict. Their position with respect to the laity, with whom they share a common priesthood of believers, is also an ambiguous one. After orientating the reader to the nature of the problem and various starting issues (chapter 1), this practical-theological thesis seeks to explore the nature of the changes in the socio-political milieu (chapter 2), as well as in the religious context (chapter 3). Baptist pastors are affected by a range of expectations that emerge from a particular view of the Bible and from the wider church community, as well as from the media and their own experience of pastors. Chapters 4 and 5 seek to understand these expectations, especially as these expectations have combined to produce role conflict and role ambiguity. In such a situation it is more understandable that ministry can lack a pastoral centre and an unclear identity. Pastors have adopted a stance in the midst of such competing demands on their role identity and chapter 6 attempts to make their position clearer through empirical analysis, before embarking – in chapters 7 and 8 – on a description of a new model of pastoral ministry that is founded on the theatrical notion of the antagonist. Several implications for future ministry are explored in chapter 9, as we look forward to a revised praxis. The pastor as spiritual antagonist is approached from the vantage-point of the world of drama, since this angle, in its metaphorical richness, is seminal for a new understanding of the provocative role of the pastor in a world that is steadily devaluing spiritual leadership. The spiritual antagonist is described in terms of his/her character and ministry actions as one who is profoundly spiritual in his awe of God and in his determination to live reflectively. At the same time the spiritual antagonist is one who has an imaginative grasp on the communicative possibilities of being with people, and alongside people, intensely and for the purpose of provoking decision and faith. Whatever conflict is generated by such a stance is deliberately incorporated for educational and transformational purposes. Whatever is modelled – in the mode of the spiritual antagonist – by ordained pastors / elders becomes facilitatory for fellow believers in the congregation to fashion a similar identity. Thus an old division in Baptist ecclesiology is healed.