Professional Christian

Twenty years ago, I served as the director of Christian Education in a congregation in the town where I lived. Whenever the kids would see me out at the grocery store, the library, or playground, they would get all flustered because they thought I actually lived at the church. I even invited them to my home for an ice cream party and they could not compute that I actually lived there. It was the first, and only time, I ever had a whole group of children that were so convinced that my life was the church. Perhaps the pandemic and use of Zoom has helped smooth that over, perhaps that’s made it harder? I know that the children I work with now know that I do not live in the church, but still struggle with the knowledge that I also wash laundry, have a sink full of dirty dishes to clean, and sleep in a bed with a blanket and pillow. It can be hard to connect with people and live authentically when people don’t relate to you in all of your humanness. When Professional Christian by Sarah Bereza arrived on my doorstep from the publisher, I was rather pleased to have a resource that could help me navigate this phenomena. 

This resource is written for church professionals seeking to to serve faithfully and authentically while living lives with integrity. This is a difficult balance to strike, and the author brings over two decades of experience as a church musician to the table to help the reader. The book includes interviews with fifty church leaders from a variety of denominations and settings, helping to add more insight and clarity to the ways church professionals can live out their callings in all the pathways of their lives. Organized by chapters on complications of professional ministries, authenticity, communication, sharing portions vs. complete pieces of life, maintaining privacy and confidentiality, and being fully oneself in a variety of situations, each section is woven with real life experiences from others that have served/are serving as church professionals in various capacities. I found myself nodding along in several places, especially about how sharing fully in one slice of one’s life permits for connections with congregants and privacy for loved ones. Each chapter closes with discussion questions, allowing the readers more ways to process what they have read and what they have experienced.

This book is a valuable resource for those of us who wrestle with living authentically while in the constant view of the congregation and public. It can sometimes be a lonely situation; shouldering the emotional needs of the congregation amidst your own (that you cannot always share), keeping the work professional when tension and stress cannot be shared, all while serving the needs of a congregation and community as God has sent you to do. If you need advice, this book is for you. If you need affirmation, this book is for you. If you need real life examples of how others in your shoes have handled this, this book is for you. If you are part of the leadership of a congregation, this book is for you so that you know how you can better support your leaders. This book is a powerful tool and a comforting balm for those who lovingly labor as church professionals; add it to your ‘to be read’ pile.