Seems to me, the challenge of ministry is that of being able to fit in more week than the days can give you. With the concertina effect of a motorway crash, days suddenly become compressed and it is a challenge to see where one ends and the other begins. More worrying is the feeling that between the two obvious wrecks is another smaller event!
A week like that recently saw two funeral visits being made on a Friday evening (after our Kid's Club') which meant I returned home at about ten. As I arrived I was aware of Mrs Vicarage and a visitor talking out the front. Well, to put it simply half past midnight saw a warden and me in Yorkshire taking our visitor somewhere safe! Back by three it wasn't that long before I was out of bed and leaving for a diocesan meeting which bled nicely into another church event and eventually the study, where orders of service for a couple of funerals were sorted and mailed (remember the two funeral visits) so the sheets could be printed in time.
Sunday dawned and I found myself doing an early communion elsewhere followed by our communion service, another home visit and checking the stuff was in place for a 'prayer focus' service - followed, of course, by the prayer focus service!
So there we are, forty-eight hours in the life of an average dog-collar. Average? Well it is here!
Now I write this, not for applause (for there shouldn't be any) and not for criticism (but there might be) but for understanding (which there isn't always) of the pressures on those who serve in the ministerial role.
Is my weekend 'average'? Well it was for me? Is it healthy? Well it is for me (in moderation anyway), Is it fun? You'd better believe it!
Take some time today to pray for those who lead you. If you're a church member - pray for your minister (and the person in the Mrs Vicarage role), the leadership team (elders, deacons, wardens, church council, the 'doers').
If you're a minister, pray for those with oversight of you.
If you're an overseer (pointyhead for instance), pray for Rowan and John.
If you're John, pray for Rowan.
If you're Rowan, may God help you, pray for us!
Pax
8 comments:
And in the interim let's have a few prayers (and cheers) for Vic and those like him.
I'm relieved you find it fun, that's half the battle.
Frankly I view much of the work of the Vicar / Priest as a thankless task and I wouldn't do it for all the toffee....
It takes a very special sort of person, of which I'm certainly not one.
I so agree our leaders need as much prayer support as possible. But I did notice that it was Mrs Vicarage that was sorting the problem "out of hours" too. Also spare a thought for the Mrs Vicarages who man (or woman) the phones,organise the diary, fend of visitors that can be dealt with by a cup of tea and an ear when the Rev. is up to his ears in meetings,sermon prep. etc. and generally assist, whilst looking after the family.....
@tootallburd
Your point relating to remembering all of the Mrs Vicarage's out there is salient.
Indeedy.
Mrs Vicarage and me are both engaged and because we 'live over the shop' she is often the person what gets to have the pleasure of sealing with situations should I, as I was with the funeral visits, out and about.
We see ministry as a joint calling and so she runs the home, keeps the dog-collar on the straight and narrow, does the stuff and is different and yet the same (homoousios) - a sort of Binitarian model of married calling.
I regard us as one and the same, but thanks for the very valid reminder about naming spice and praying for them :)
Blog amended to acknowledge mrs. Vicarages :)
V
Thank you. A Mrs Vicarage. :)
You'll like the thing I posted a few minutes ago then (I hope),
V
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