Go out into the world...

One of the challenges of ministry is not to become so consumed with the immediate demands of our work that we lose touch with the one who has called us to ministry. Staying in touch with our vocation and the one who called us to it, can help us cope with times of weariness, disappointment, and even creeping cynicism. There are a number of ways that we can intentionally work to stay in touch with the one who called us but I want to suggest one simple practice that may be of help.

We all have to close our office as we are about to leave for the day. Some are very tidy and leave a clean desk and some like me just group things into piles. In either case, there are some normal routines by which we leave our office for the day. I would like to suggest that you build into that routine an additional ten minutes. At the end of your day, take ten minutes to write about where you feel God present (or absent) in your work. Don’t try to make it profound, literary, or even complete. You only have ten minutes so you may not even complete a thought. Give yourself permission to not need to finish anything. Just write for ten minutes.

The focus of the writing is to bring to awareness God’s involvment in what is taking place in your life at this time. Sometimes it will be where God is in this days activities, sometimes in your anticipation of the coming days, or even where God has been for you lately. If God has not felt present, write about that as well. You may even occasionally want to write about your sense of call at this time in your life. What you are doing is intentionally reflecting on the fact that what you are doing is more than a job. If God has placed you in this situation, however joyous or depressing, stressful or fulfilling, what would God say to you at this moment.

For some people it might be helpful to actually address your writing to God but for others that might seem too much like a game. Whatever works, allow yourself to have these ten minutes to record your thoughts.

You will have to decide whether this works best on a small notebook set aside for this purpose or a special file on your computer. There are also journal programs that you can place on your computer that have other possibilities than just the specific idea that I am suggesting. Occasionally I think you will find it of great value to go back and read what you have been recording over time. Our journeys are never smooth but it helps to at times realize how connected even the most ordinary of days are to our vocation.

Let me share a practice that I have found helpful in Sabbath practice in the midst of a demanding ministry. It is the silent meal. I first discovered this while I was at a monastery. I was with a group of Protestants who were visiting the monastery as part of a course on Spirituality. We had been to common prayers with the brothers, met together as a group to talk about our spiritual journey, and been addressed by one of the brothers about the monastery. Then we went to lunch. We were told ahead of time that the lunch was a time of silence. As I sat with friends having my meal, I realized what a freedom it was to not be expected to speak and interract with others. It gave me an opportunity to draw within myself.

When I returned home, I started thinking about that meal and how I could continue the practice. This may not work for many others, but I discovered that I could experience a valuable time of silence at a fast food restaurant. I would order an inexpensive meal, choose a table, and enter into a time of silence in the midst of the cacophny of the world around me. As I sat down at the table, before I unwrapped my meal, I would begin my prayer time. I would often begin with prayers for all those who had some part in preparing the meal before me, taking that as far back in the food process as possible. There was someone who had raised the animal or planted and cared for the vegetables that I was about to eat. Someone had harvested them, transported them, processed them, cooked them, etc. At times, I also prayed for those who had prepared the paper, designed the package, and manufactured the cup in which my meal was contained. What I found is that this took me outside the immediacy of my work world and put me in prayer for many parts of the world that I rarely thought about.

After about ten minutes of prayer, I would slowly unwrap my simple meal and occasionally take a bite or sip of my drink as I continued my prayers. As much as possible, I would pray with my eyes closed and my mind totally focused. At times I would pray for people or situations in my ministry, and at other times I would pray for colleagues that I knew were having a difficult time.

Because I am a product of this time-stressed world, I chose to commit myself to at least one-half hour of prayer from the time that I sat down at the table. I usually found that it was a wonderful time to recenter me in the midst of a task filled day.

While I think it is of great value for a pastor to find a complete day for Sabbath, I want to explore also the way that we can practice the Sabbath in brief interrupted times. It doesn’t replace the value of a whole day but it helps us stay in touch with God and others.

An intentional time of prayer that brings us into communion with God is part of our Sabbath time. It is best to think of when it is most likely that the chosen time will be uninterrupted. I found that early morning before I left the house was a good time for me. I chose a particular room in the house where I could have a Bible and a devotional as well as writing materials. This was not a time for study, however. It was a time to deliberately make space to commune with God. Writing often helped that but the focus was on time with God. Some form of centering prayer was also helpful.

Monday was my day off. It was frequently filled with all sorts of tasks and was not a time for good spiritual nurture. When I arrived at church on Tuesday, before I sorted all the messages from the weekend, I regularly went to the chapel for at least a half-hour of prayer time. It helped center me for the week. The chapel, rather than in my office, prevented me from being distracted by all the tasks awaiting my attention.

A third place of respite that I discovered was to make use of hospital chapels during my visit to patients. It may only be fifteen or twenty minutes, but it was always a refreshing time to pause in the midst of a busy day to remember who I was and who had called me to ministry.

Think about your day and week. What are the ways in which you can interrupt the pace, however briefly and place yourself in communion with God?

There were many things wrong with the blue laws that existed when I was a child, but it did have some benefits that we have now lost. First, it built in the idea of rhythm in our week. There was a day, and in many cases two days, when things shut down. Without having to consciously think about it, people pulled away from their work and focused on other things. In harmony with the intent of the fourth commandment, even if you were not Christian, you got a break from work. For Christians, of course, it also built in a societal support for the churches. There weren’t as many competing choices that might tempt a believer from not attending worship.

For pastors, however, it meant an extra hard day of work. That part hasn’t changed. For most pastors, Sunday, and even for some Saturday evening, means extra work as they seek to provide services for the members and visitors to their congregation. In some ways, it has always been true in both the Jewish and Christian faiths that the priests, rabbis, and clergy had extra obligations on the Sabbath.

Jesus made it very clear that the sabbath was made for humanity and not humanity for the Sabbath. It is the principle of the Sabbath, not the exact position in the week that is important. In that freedom, Christians actually moved their celebration of the Sabbath from what we now call Saturday to Sunday.

Whether it be Saturday or Sunday, our society has stopped honoring a day of rest and often Sunday has become one more opportunity for commercialism. Therefore, if one is going to practice the principle of the Sabbath, one has to be much more intentional about it. Because of the increasingly complex nature of the pastorate, I think it is all the more important that clergy find creative ways to practice the Sabbath. In doing so, they are making an important witness for their time stressed society in which we live.

To practice the Sabbath creatively, we need to remind ourselves of the purpose of the Sabbath. I would suggest that it begins with relationships. The Sabbath is a time to step outside the world that stresses productivity and focus on the primacy of relationships. Their are four relationships that seem to be the center of the emphasis in the Sabbath Commandment. It is certainly a time to nurture our relationship with God. The Exodus explanation of the commandment reminds us that our whole existence has its origin in God’s creative activity. It is also a time to emphasize our relationship with our neighbor, the creation in which we live, and our relationship with ourselves. Over the next couple of days I would like to look at the practice of Sabbath with respect to these relationships.

I have a close friend in the ministry who told me that when he was dating the woman who would become his wife she asked him directly if he had any intentions of becoming a pastor. The implication of the question was that if he had such an intention, the relationship was going to end because she had no intention of becoming a pastor’s wife. He said that his daddy was a preacher so he knew what it meant and he had absolutely no intention of becoming a pastor himself. He was sincere in his answer but he didn’t understand the power of God’s call in his life.

Fortunately his wife did not follow through on her threat to take him to divorce court when later in his life he did hear God’s call. What she was recognizing, however, is that responding to God’s call has implications not only for the person called but others who are close to him or her. It is only reported in Genesis 12:1 that the call came to Abram, but Sarai also left behind family and friends as well as the security of familiar surroundings in response to the call. While I do not know how it is for a male spouse of a pastor, I am well aware of the pressures that my wife has experienced as she supported me in responding to my call. While everyone is affected by the particular professions chosen, I think many lay people would be surprised at how many ways the pastor’s family is affected by their position. While most pastors are well aware that they have chosen a calling that does not provide the salaries that equally educated people can draw and that their freedom with respect to time is limited, the truth is that their families also feel that pressure.

Just one small suggestion for both sessions and presbyteries. There would be a positive impact if occasionally individual family members of a pastor received a note expressing an awareness that the pastor’s family is affected by the demands of the pastorate and thanking them for their support. It would be great for a pastor’s spouse to receive such a note but I think it would be powerful for the pastor’s children to receive that recognition as well. In this day of computer technology, what about getting the baptism date of family members in a pastor’s family and recognizing their part in God’s call on their baptism anniversary.