I don't believe pastors hear from God more or clearer than others. Every one in the pulpit wasn't called by Him.
Both of these statements are true. But one also has to recognize that pastors (Presbyters or Episkopoi to use the NT terms) have a different vocation from some people with exceptional prophetic gifts (usually ascetics who live a life of prayer). A good example would be two Russian Orthodox saints, Seraphim of Sarov and Fr. John of Kronstadt. John of Kronstadt was a priest who excelled at pastoral care and loved being a pastor at a time (the late 19th century) when the Russian Orthodox Church was not self governing, and did not have a Patriarch, but was under the direct control of a bureaucrat appointed by the czar and a committee of six bishops, selected out of several hundred bishops nationwide, on the basis of being least likely to rock the boat. People took communion infrequently, usually once a year, never confessed their sins, and many priests did not bother to preach.
It was as bad as things ever got in an Orthodox Church, and was an embarrassment to the pious faithful, like Dostoevsky, a stumbling block for men of conscience like Leo Tolstoy, and another schism worse than the Old Believer schism of the 17th century would have happened had things not been radically turned around (which they were, and then the Bolsheviks happened, but the revitalized church survived abroad and in secret in Russia).
John of Kronstadt, through his preaching encouraged, successfully, his congregation to take communion at least once a week. And because the Russian tradition is to confess sins before taking communion, and because every Sunday hundreds of new people would visit his church (located in the main seaport of St. Petersburg), in addition to the regular congregation, he simply had everyone shout their sins at the top of their lungs before the service, thus allowing people to confess while maintaining privacy (since no one could hear over everyone else), and then pronounced a general absolution. He was not, as far as I have heard, gifted in other ways spiritually, but in terms of pastoral care, he was amazing, and helped inspire the spiritual revitalization of the Russian church.
Now, equally inspiring but in all respects a man of a different vocation was Seraphim of Sarov. He was a hermit who prayed alone in the woods, standing on a rocky outcropping and praying all night most nights of the year, before his legs failed him and he had to remain mostly within his hermitage (his log cabin). He then a few years later opened the door to his cabin and started receiving visitors. Hundreds of people would come to see him for advice on both spiritual and secular matters. He had a clear charisma of prophecy, in that he was known to be able to answer the questions of new visitors before they had the chance to ask them, sometimes deeply personal spiritual questions.
There are people like John of Kronstadt and Seraphim of Sarov alive today, in many countries and in many churches. Really good pastors like St. John and really good confessors like St. Seraphim are quite hard to find, but they do exist. There are also new vocations which have appeared due to improvements in communications. Many people are unaware of the fact that Fred Rogers, host of the beloved children’s educational program Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, was a Presbyterian minister, who attended seminary, had an MDiv, and was ordained specially for ministry to young children using the new medium of television (he had begun his career in children’s TV before going to seminary).
So, the fact that most clergy I know are not foreseeing through divine means an impending event does not mean they are incompetent or unqualified; it is simply not the job of a pastor to foretell the future. Prophecy does exist in Christianity, but I think it more frequently tends to concern individual matters of salvation as opposed to major events (although prophecies of the latter have occurred). Lastly it should be stressed that concerning the dread day of judgement, no one knows when it will happen except God, and I myself think it is somewhat of a mistake to look forward enthusiastically to the Parousia. The more time we have to, through the grace of God, repent of our myriad sins, grow stronger in faith and make ourselves by grace through faith better temples of the Holy Spirit, the better it is for us.
