Being a pastor

On the on hand, my job is about managing systems. I am the pastor of a congregation that is large and complex enough that it requires careful budget management, ways to account and report, multiple committees and complex planning. As churches go, ours isn’t a mega church. There are far larger and more complex institutions. It is, however, a well-established institution with 140 years of history. It takes a computer network to turn on the heat in the building and technicians to keep things running. I’ve had talks with three different vendors this week regarding contract renewals. I have to be able to think in terms of systems and patterns of organization.

On the other hand, my job is about individual relationships. I have to admit that what I like best is conversation with individuals and getting to know them better. My work day comes to its end and I finally get home and I find myself sitting on the stairway inside my house talking for more than an hour with a young man who is discovering new depths in his spiritual quest. This isn’t someone whose face other church members see. He hasn’t attended church more than twice a year for more than decade. But he feels the need for a community. He has come to the point in his life where he wants to be a part of something bigger than himself. He may be the church member of the future. I don’t know that much. What I do know is that he is engaged in an honest struggle with his personal spiritual quest. I end the phone conversation by making an appointment to meet him after office hours on a Friday. I wouldn’t have to do this to keep my job. It may not pay off in terms of worship attendance or donor dollars, two numbers that are used to judge my job performance. But it is genuinely fascinating to me.

I’ve paid thee visits this week to a hospital room where another young man is adjusting to a life-altering medical diagnosis. He’s going to be in the hospital for a while. He’ll probably go to he rehabilitation hospital next week for a couple of weeks of physical therapy. He’s probably a month or more out from being able to return to work and when he does it will be on a reduced schedule. It is as yet unclear whether he will be able to return to his pervious levels of performance in a challenging career. He’s got a tiny baby at home - their first. He has big responsibilities and big questions. I helped him find a daily devotional application on his cell phone and the lesson yesterday was about not worrying. Jesus said, “be not afraid,” a lot. This young man has never attended our church. He may not ever join. But he has reached out to me to walk with him through his season of his life and he holds my attention.

I ate lunch with a long-time church member who could be in the last year of his life. I have no special powers to predict the future, but both he and I know that his medical condition is not something from which people recover. I’ve watched him journey from a life of 12-hour days and incredible energy to someone who can barely muster the energy to get dressed, use his walker to make his way to the car and from the car into the restaurant and talk for a little over an hour over lunch then go back home. That is all he was able to accomplish that day. We both know it won’t be long before he won’t have that much energy. His thoughts about life and death and the meaning of it all interest me. The conversation seems very worthwhile.

We invite a young couple over to our home for dinner on our day off. They have just been through a very frightening episode with a sibling who experienced a mental break down and exhibited suicidal behavior. Fortunately they were able to get him help and his condition has stabilized, but it was a frightening event and they need to talk. Their story commands my attention.

One of the tasks of today is to make a phone call and set up a meeting with a man who has just been forced to change careers. He loved his old job, but he also loves living in this place and there are no more jobs for a person with his skillset in this community. He has to either find a new way to earn his living or move to a much bigger city. It is more complex than that because his wife has connections and obligations in this place and right now they are dependent on her income while he searches for a new way to earn a paycheck. This family will not be writing the checks that address the deficit in the church budget this year or any year in the near term future. They are not well known in our congregation. However, I can’t escape my gut feeling that somehow they represent a piece of the future of the church and the relationship is worth pursuing.

I could go on and on with my list. I can easily come up with five or more conversations that I will pursue that are not directly related to the job of administering our congregation, yet are about the larger business of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. While keeping the institution of the church going, the spiritual community of seekers of faith continues to be an important aspect of my ministry. These conversations are not included in my annual report. They are not reported to my official board. Running an institution and assuring its future requires other skills, other tasks and other energies.

I am, however, nurtured by genuine conversation with people who are honest about their faith. They keep me going and give me the energy to keep the institution’s doors open for another day.

I can give you the numbers on return on investment of replacing the fluorescent bulbs in 114 fixtures with LEDs. I know how to negotiate a trade out agreement with a construction company. I can tell you what size donation offsets the energy costs of turning up the heat in one wing of our building two hours earlier than usual. But those things don’t excite me the way a phone call from a person who was in a confirmation class 15 years ago and who hasn’t been to church more than a dozen times since. I’ll be out of the office for an hour - maybe two - even if that means I’ll have to come in on Saturday to finish the paperwork. I need to have coffee with this person and hear his story.

Copyright (c) 2019 by Ted E. Huffman. I wrote this. If you would like to share it, please direct your friends to my web site. If you'd like permission to copy, please send me an email. Thanks!