Christian people can endure and prevail in Christ, supported by faithful pastoral words. Failure to provide this support is a betrayal of the ministry's most basic call. Of course, just as pillars vary in thickness, design and strategic placement, so do the different aspects of a pastor's ministry. The effectiveness of a pillar's construction is often difficult to assess; we hope we don't have to wait until a building falls down before we evaluate its construction. Likewise, careful attention should be given to the construction of a pastor's supportive ministry. I call the process becoming a prophet-priest. Prophet-priests draw other persons to the ultimate pillar, Jesus Christ.

"You should hear his words. You have never heard anything like his words," a lady said to her friends. She spoke of a pastor who was about to preach at her husband's funeral. In faith, she had bestowed on a trusted spiritual director life's ultimate privilege, the final word. The final word opens the door to life's mysteries, paradoxes and inherent contradictions. We must have a deft touch in opening the door to peer beyond death. Every ear and eye are open and every individual is poised to experience the other side. Imprecision through lack of spiritual preparation, careless thought, or the inability to seize the significance of the moment, is a sin.

Those who hear a funeral sermon deserve that in which the prophet-priest should excel -- words fitting for the moment. The hearers wait expectantly, but not always confidently, for Spirit-anointed and Christ-centered words.

All of life is a crisis. The prophet-priest has the deep realization that daily human existence carries the potential for conflict. Words can be used for both conflict prevention and conflict resolution. Pastors who fail to face life as it is by applying biblical truth are as bland as a computerized sales pitch on the telephone. They fail to change people's lives because they are both impersonal and irrelevant. By contrast, a prophet-priest can enter a crisis with differentiating, penetrating, revealing, unmasking and inspiring speech. This calls for a marshaling of all of the minister's resources. It requires all of the prophet-priest's character, knowledge and skill to meet the demand of the moment.

Even when a minister says nothing, it is not out of a lack of knowledge. A faithful minister's silence will not come out of ignorance, but from a thoroughly honed sensibility that there is not an appropriate word to speak on this occasion. But eventually, like job's friends, we will be called upon to speak, for better or worse.

Prophetical-priestly words call for as emotional and spiritual investment that is draining. Facing falsehood with truth, tearing down evasive facades, calling for decision and rebuilding character is tough work. For that reason, throughout the history of the church, prophet-priests have needed times of retreat. The confronting, interacting, uplifting and resurrecting nature of the minister's job requires incredible stamina. The requisite resources are not found in the human storehouse.