I am NOT a Pastor

Ya know, I have answered this question a thousand times since I started blogging back in the Vox days.  I used to have it in the “who am I” page here.  I once even changed my Twitter name cuz people liked to complain about it.  I never let it bother me cuz to do that would be to judge those who had a problem with it and that’s not my job.

Today, as hard as I tried to fight it, I was actually offended.  Although I would LOVE, and I do mean L-O-V-E, to call this person out and tell ya EXACTLY what I think of him, tell ya his name and the church he pastors, and plaster it on every blog I read, I won’t.  Yes, a pastor!  Not just a pastor, but one I admired and kinda looked up to.  He sent me the following DMs via Twitter:

When are you going to end the lie? Stop telling people you’re a pastor?

Why are you a fraud?  You give Christians a bad name!  We wonder why the church suffers.

You will either change your name or I will let EVERYONE know who you really are.  That is not a threat, but a promise.

I am disgusted every time I see your name on here, knowing you are not who you say you are!

I copied and pasted those….no editing except I took our names out.  Like I said, I have heard this before, but after simple explanation, people usually get over it.  It seems that this guy is not gonna get over it as he was one of them, long ago, who had a problem and I assumed was over it.  I mean, we’ve had conversations via Twitter and email and everything seemed fine.  Well, since he loves to hate me, I’ll assume he’s reading this.  Let me preface this with a few things:  (what used to be on the Who Am I page)   I’m not a pastor of a church.  Never have been.  Never claimed to be.  If you thought that, you did because of your own assumptions, not cuz I told you so.  I used to do a thing on BlogTv called Church on the Net.  Every Sunday I did a sermon-type-thing and my USERNAME was Pastor_T.  I started with Twitter because of Church on the Net, to help spread the word, gain viewers and thus spread the Word of God to as many as I could.  I kept the username the same to coordinate with the other.  Pretty simple, right?  So, here’s what I have for the chronic complainer:

1. I’m not lying to anyone.
2. Pastor= A layperson having spiritual charge over a person or group.  Take a look at my BlogTv page if you’d like.  There were anywhere from 50 to 550 views of the recordings every week.  That satisfies the description of person or group.  I was the only person ever in the sermons….That satisfies having spiritual charge.
3. No, you’re right, it’s not, nor was it ever, a physical building, but to me and many others, it was church.  There were some differences though.
4. No one ever gave me a dime and I never asked for it.
5. I don’t have a running total of “people saved” cuz of Church on the Net.  Ya know why?  Cuz I didn’t save anyone.  Neither do you!  Jesus Christ does the saving…PERIOD!
6. I will be a pastor eventually.  Why change my name now only to change it back in a year or so?  I’m confident that you’re in the minority and most people who claim to be Christians will have better things to do than worry about MY NAME.

There ya have it sir.  I have lots more, but, kind of like your messages, they would not be very Christian-like.  I started Church on the Net when my wife left for basic training.  She was gone for the better part of a year and I needed that extra time with God, where I could hopefully share what I was learning with others who wanted/needed to learn more about Christ.

I continue this blog for the same reason—To share the love of God with as many who will listen/read.  You know my name—get over the rest!  THIS is What’s This Life For and my life is to spread the Word.  I will continue to do this, with the same name, for as long as He allows me.  Satan will send folks like you my way from time to time and that’s fine cuz Jesus will win EVERY TIME.  You, sir, should give me a call.  Maybe we can work out some of your issues.  Maybe I’m not the person to help you.  Find someone else then cuz those words you sent to me are not appropriate for anyone, let alone someone “having spiritual charge over a person or group.”  I mean, come on!  There are, so obviously, deeper seeded issues here other then my name….right?  But, I digress….I’m not a psychologist and I’m not gonna try to analyze you.  I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again…..If you need help, here I am.

To other readers of this blog:  I apologize for the rant.  I hope you understand.