Can An Aspie Pastor Succeed? Yes.

So I've been thinking a lot about how a pastor with Aspergers can be successful in the pulpit. Someone helped me see that I've been seeing Aspergers as a burden rather than a positive. That's not surprising, since the diagnosis is rather new. But in thinking, I've come up with a few stregnths in being a pastor with Aspergers:

• Strong preaching skills. While I might lack in the social skills, I do preach a good sermon. That's always been important to me. People need to hear God's Word and I take that charge seriously.
• Good Administrative Skills. I realized this during my years as a new church pastor. I could do all the behind-the-scenes work, putting up the website, looking over the budget, and doing some of the other seemingly mundane stuff.
  
• Good Planning Skills. I've been good with planning things, such as worship. I've never been good with people who just tend to let things happen. I remember being part of an Episcopal church for a while that was anything but organized. It drove me nuts, because the worship was never planned-it just sort of happened. I'm also the go-to person to get events set up and running and look at what's not being done.

There are probably more, but that's what I've thought of. Yes, I do have a drawback when it comes to things like people skills (which means stay away from youth ministry), but the fact that I am learning is that I can't be the whole package for people. I might need an associate or lay person to help me in that area.

The fact is, having Asperger's doesn't mean I can't be a pastor. It just means being a different kind of pastor.