I want to suggest still another image (for the identity of a Pastor): the poet. I present this not as the normative or even preferred image, but simply as another biblical discription of the calling of those who have been blessed with a vision that allows them to explore, and express, the truth behind the reality. Poets see the despair and heartache as well as the beauty and miracle that lie just beneath the thin veneer of the ordinary, and they describe this in ways that at recognized not only in the mind, but more profoundly in the soul.

In a day which people are so profoundly confused about fundamntal identity issues, and are desperately tryin to construct life as best they can, it is critically necessary for pastors to recover this poetic dimension of their ministries. What the congregation needs is nt a strategist to help them form another plan for achieving a desired image of life, but a poet who looks beneath even desperation to recover the mystery of what it means to be made in God’s image.