Religious leaders provide the face of faith for the rank and file members and also for the public. This is true no matter what the organization of the religious body and how the leader is viewed in theological terms. This is as true for the Latter-day Saints or the Greek Orthodox Church as it is in my denomination, the United Church of Christ. In the UCC, for example, Rev. John Thomas, General Minister and President, plays a crucial role for us in giving face and voice to our church commitments. John has done a wonderful job of representing us during our “God is Still Speaking” campaign and as head of our denomination.
I have been so proud of John’s articulate and biblically based witness to the commitments of our church. While we in the UCC do assert that God is still speaking, we too need human voices and faces to make that interpretation for us and with us and to make it to the general public. We need this despite the fact that, as Protestants, we also believe in the “priesthood of all believers.” Faith needs a face.
On the other hand, it is also my pastoral experience that the indisputable fact that ‘faith needs a faith’ is also a danger to faith. Many church members don’t actually struggle with the need to believe in God; it is enough for them to believe that the pastor believes in God. This is bad for the faith of the laity, and it is bad for the pastor who carries the weight of so many peoples’ faith.
Pastors know, consciously or unconsciously, that some people think it’s enough to believe that the pastor believes in God and that is an enormous pressure on the pastor who is unable to admit to weakness or even doubt because then, he or she fears, these laity will falter completely.
For the layperson, just believing that the pastor believes is, of course, a lazy approach to faith and one that serves you poorly when you are alone with illness, suffering and even death. It is also a poor substitute for the blessings of the journey of faith that help you get to know your own soul and how your soul stands with God. Sometimes, of course, people are afraid to look at the state of their own soul, preferring to just skate along on the surface, letting a derivative belief substitute for the real thing. That’s like living and never taking a deep breath. The life of faith has to be breathed in deeply and breathed out every day, all day long. A life lived in God is not an easy journey and yet the rewards are without price.
If you let the face of the religious leader and his or her faith suffice for you, no matter whether you are LDS or Greek Orthodox or UCC, you will not, perhaps, know doubt, but you will also never know true joy. The only face of faith that really matters is your own and whether you can finally face yourself before God.
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