Anthony Bourdain and Church Leadership

An article by Matt    3 Comments

I am a fan of Anthony Bourdain.  I realize that he and I come from very different faith backgrounds.  I also realize that he is something of a disreputable sort.  For those of you unfamiliar with Anthony Bourdain, he has a television show called No Reservations on the Travel Channel, is a regular judge on Top Chef, and has written Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw among other books.

I recently had the opportunity to read two of Mr. Bourdain’s books and was quite taken by his story.  As he walks through the story of his life he talks about his drug abuse, his struggles to hold down a job, and the mismanagement of his own life.  He goes on to share about how he is now far less angry, and seems to have gotten his life back on track and is now a father… and from the sounds of it an engaged, and good, father.

While all this makes for an attractive story, this is not what makes me a fan of Tony.  What makes me a fan is that the dude is passionate about his craft.  He was a chef, and he loved being a chef.  He is passionate about all things chef, and he gets angry when people do things that he feels discredit his craft (like his issues with Rachael Ray).

A little over ten years ago our team was wrapping up a Wednesday night middle school event and as we were debriefing the night a friend told that evening’s speaker: “your delivery was off, your message was a little muddled, but you were passionate about Jesus and that made up for your shortcomings.”

We have all met people who are far from passionate about what they do.  I can think of many encounters at the Department of Motor Vehicles, fast food restaurants, and certain retail establishments where people obviously were not invested enough in their work to consider it a craft.  Anthony Bourdain feels this way when Rachael Ray encourages people to buy pre-cut onions.   I feel this way when I encounter church leadership that are working at a church for the paycheck.

Ministry is hard work.
Ministry is important.
Ministry is a calling.

If your passion for the church, or ministry in general, is just not there it may be time to reconsider your current occupation… even if just for a season.  One of the greatest gifts that you can give your congregation is to be passionate about Jesus, about the church, and about seeing lives change through the move of the Holy Spirit.

How do YOU ensure that you are passionate about ministry?