What's in a nickname? Part III
After pondering the monickers of professional sports teams and of Anabaptist schools, I turn to my own nicknames. Some of you may have heard that I have just accepted a position as a youth pastor in a local congregation. I was in conversation with a few members of my new church, and they were asking me what I wanted to be called. I hadn't really put much thought into the subject until then. Pastor Will would work, and I've already realized how weird it is be called that. I could also now list myself as Reverend William Loewen in the phone book, and I'm not sure I'll be able to resist that urge. That very title directly means "deserving reverence", and as a humble shepherd of a "priesthood of all believers" flock, I'm not sure that title would be completely appropriate. Not being a fan of the catholic view of the role of the priest, I don't want to take on any particularly catholic titles, so that knocks most of the names that came up using my handy-dandy thesaurus. For a little while, some people, including readers of this blog, called me "Reverend", or even "the good Reverend" but now that it's my official position, I'm not sure if there is any particular ring to Reverend Will or even Rev Will, let alone the implications made by the direct definition of the title. Some of the more interesting synonyms for pastor are "sky pilot" and "Holy Joe", neither of which really fit me. "Parson" is nice, although it implies to me that I'd be working with an Amish congregation. I think the one that I like the most is "Ecclesiast", but it doesn't quite roll off the tongue. I'm open to any suggestions from any of you as well. I came to the realization however, that no matter how badly I want them to call me something else, odds are that they will always call me Pastor Will, and that's good enough for me.

   [ posted by William @ 11:31 AM ]