Gravitas

It isn't that these students looked bad. They were sharp, pleasant twenty-somethings who I knew had done well in their coursework. They could probably even play the guitar. There really wasn't a thing wrong with them-and that was what was so striking. As far as I could see, they were only lacking one thing, but one thing that is pretty much a necessity for a pastor. The old pastors used to call gravitas. You just cannot be ordained without it.

Gravitas is a condition of the soul that has developed enough spiritual mass to attract other souls. It makes the soul appear old, but gravitas has nothing to do with age. It has everything to do with scars that have healed well, failures that have been redeemed, sins that have been forgiven, and thorns that have settled into the flesh.

It all expands the soul until it is larger than the body that contains it, large enough to hold the truth of the Word of God. And, like gravity, it pulls others not to the pastor but to the holy work that has occurred within the pastor's soul.

This gravity isn't a commodity that can be purchased with seminary tuition payments. It certainly isn't found in a library. A weighty soul has to be developed the hard way.

M Craig Barnes