“I am not speaking to you of God because I am a pastor, I am a pastor because I must speak to you of God.”
These days it seems that many pastors have reversed Barth’s logic. The office precedes the unction, management and direction usurp awe and submission. Speaking is part of the ministry, and the ministry is just that “the ministry.” It exists by itself and deserves an article. The God whom we speak of is often diminished by the looming presence of our personalities and ministries. Sermon preparation turns rote, teaching is reduced to a task, and counseling becomes heartless duty. Noble as some of our efforts are to stand before God and speak, all too often we enter the pulpit only to shout “Man!”
Karl Barth had a painting by Grunewald that hung over his desk, The Crucifixion. One of the unique aspects of the painting is the pointing hand and the inscription behind it: “He must increase and I must decrease.” Like John the Baptist, Barth’s aim was for his words and theology to always move upwards, as the trees, pointing to the increase of glory in the transcendent God.
How did he sustain such an upward, Godward view? He didn’t; God did. Barth was convinced that in order to truly know God, we must stand before him, and standing before God meant regularly recognizing that being before God is not a result of our resolving to do so, but by God’s introducing himself to us.
For a good intro to Barth see Gerhard Busch’s, The Great Passion: An Introduction to Karl Barth’s Theology. According to Kevin Cawley, a more concise intro is Colin Brown’s little book, Karl Barth & The Christian Message.