The truth for this week is that we can survive the storms and setbacks of life. We survive them through our faith and through one another. The illustration I used was calling for sandbaggers in your life. There will be times each of us will need to call upon others to come and help us stand through the storms of life. As people in Iowa have been more willing to sandbag for one another after last years flood we need to be ready and willing to sandbag for each other when storms come in life.
One adjustment we are attempting to make in our congregation is for people of the church to remember they are sandbaggers for one another. In the past, when this congregation was smaller the pastor would be the sandbagger. It was the pastor who always showed up in the midst of the storm, not that there is anything wrong with that. However, now our congregation has 200 families connected to it and if the single pastor is supposed to show up for every storm then that pastor will not have much time for anything else besides sandbagging.
So we are trying to encourage each person in the congregation to be a sandbagger. Each of us are qualified and called to show up for others in the midst of the storms. The pastor can and will still be there, but so will several other members of the congregation. When we care for one another as a group the load is lighter and community is developed. So each person needs to remember they are a sandbagger for others in the church.
A second adjustment that is needed is to help the congregation understand that a visit from a member of the congregation is not a "second class" visit. A visit from the pastor is not the only visit that counts. Those visits from members of the church are visits from people who care and represent the church just as much, if not more than, the pastor.
If you have thoughts or suggestions on communicating these ideas please let me know.
In the end the important thing to remember is that each of us are called to be sandbaggers for one another. God invites us to show up for one another in the midst of the storms. God will use you to help others survive the storms of life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Hi there! As I read this week's blog, I am inclined to agree with MOST of it. The part that is obvious to me is that the pastor cannot visit everyone all the time. Then nothing else would get done. And we as the congregation do need to realize that there are other matters of business about running the church besides stopping in for tea. And I also knw that, for at least some of our older...make that long term...members, that's a difficult transistion to make. We all grew up with those twice a year pastor visits. I remember my mom throwing the ashtrays with still smoldering cigarettes in them, into the oven as quickly as possible when she saw Rev. Hill coming up the walk. He never called first, just dropped by. Not unlike state inspections at restaurants and nursing homes, I think. But those visits were very important to us. And quite frankly, I miss them. And that's where I come to the disagree part. I love Theresa and all the other lay ministry people involved with our church but I have to say, it's the pastor visits that make the impression. Something about the fact that the pastor will take time from his or her busy schedule to come see you, just to see you, is still very important to many of us. Maybe its the fact that we go see him or her each and every week; where's the return favor? Maybe it's that old-fashioned sense of hospitiality? But then I read the line "Those visits from members of the church are visits from people who care and represent the church just as much, IF NOT MORE THAN, the pastor. Oh James, tell me it ain't so! There's a reason why you are called to be our spiritual leader and I hope that when I need you, and I mean YOU, that you will care enough to come yourself. In the meantime, I will continue to sandbag you. Oh wait, I'm not sure that quite what you meant. Well, you get what I mean. Love you!
Jeanie, I mean, Big Boss,
I will be there when I am needed you can be sure about that.
However, are you saying St. Paul's UMC is more my church than your church? I have been here 5 years, you have given much more of your life to God's work in this church. And when you and any other person from our church are in the community you represent Christ and this church as well.
I am just wanting to encourage the whole congregation to accept that calling and not rely on the pastor.
So, I understand where you are coming from, but I hope you can also see where I am coming from.
Pastor James
Oh I most assuredly can see where you are coming from. As I mentioned before if you were making all those pastoral calls that the pastors of old did, you would never get anything else done. I understand that with my head. It's my heart that misses those days. It's the same heart that misses the silent prayer we used to have during joys and concerns. And the same heart that, at certain times, misses the old building. It's the same heart that misses Gaston, Leo and Vianna, Emma Lou, Dale, and yes, even Lesta.
But I do take issue that you might think I have a more concerted interest in St. Pauls than you. Yes, this has been my home church for a long time and I love it and its members dearly but honestly, I have never felt that any church is any one members more than anothers. I guess I feel that we are in this thing together and we all just pitch in and do whatever is needed until it's done. And right now...you are one of us. I know, pastors come and go, the church stays the same. Well, members come and go as well and the church, as much as we would like to believe it stays the same, does change. So, no, you don't have a more vested interest in this church than I but you have been appointed the shepherd of this flock and as that, I do expect you to be at the forefront. Not necessarily like Kirk...more like Cherkov, setting the coordinates and flying us back to base safely. And we do accept that call to represent our church and Christ out in the real world. And you and Helen are doing a wonderful job. I just needed reassurance that you, my pastor, will be there. That's all. Still friends???
Still friends!
Whew! Glad that all worked out! Could have been awkward! :-)
Post a Comment