Things They Don't Teach You in Seminary, Part II

It's been a week of lessons and adventures in ministry- some mysterious and a little scary, some humorous, and some frustrating. I can't go into much detail on some, but I'll share a little of my adventurous week.

First of all, a lesson has been learned once again on setting boundaries and protecting myself as a pastor. Pastors are public figures, whether we like it or not- it's part of the job. Especially with our technological world, anyone can find me on the internet and contact me, know what I look like, and where to find me on any normal day, especially on a Sunday morning. We pastors also know each other a lot of the time and can connect very easily. So when a mysterious person starts contacting me with a ministry issue and claims to be one thing or live somewhere, and then I find out from a colleague living in a different state far away that he/she has been contacted by the same person claiming something else, we know something is up, and maybe something threatening. (What are the odds, right?!) So be safe, be smart, and know the boundaries, know what/who you're representing as a pastor, all the while, trying to help the person in question, not knowing whether or not this person is up to no good or really just needs some help.

Second, (time for the humorous one), I had an adventure yesterday just trying to put the church nativity set back into its boxes. I ventured into the sanctuary yesterday to put it away, thinking it would be a five minute chore and then done...wrong! I felt like a 3 year old trying to place the shapes in the correct hole on one of those toddler games. So many pieces, yet so many ambiguous looking slots of styrofoam to put them in, that I almost went crazy! Once I finally got them all in their correct place, or so I thought, I looked again at the table to see that the CAMEL was not in his box! How did I miss that?! So I had to pull out the styrofoam where I thought he should go, and there was no room for him in the inn....haha, pun intended! So after deliberating and pulling out the rest of the boxes, I finally went to the senior pastor and said, "I must have missed this class in seminary on how to put a nativity set back in the boxes. Where the heck does the camel go?" So after a few laughs, we finally got everything back in its proper place, or at least I thought. Either way, it's done until next year!



Third, the church as a whole really needs to think about what it means to be the church and to accept CHANGE as a progressive and grace filled word rather than a scary word. Our church just completed a building project with new offices, classrooms, storage space, and a new music room. And yesterday we were told that that choir does not want to move into the new music room. As you can imagine, this will upset a lot of people who spent their time and money into the building project to include a new music room, as well as a new ministry project that was planned for the old music room. I won't get too much into it on here, but the situation is disappointing to say the least.

That's all for now...hopefully I won't have anymore "lessons" this week! At least I'm getting some interesting experiences!