What does a pastor really do the rest of the week? Here’s my perspective on Sunday-Tuesday. Here’s Wednesday & Thursday…
Wednesday
Up early for a 7am breakfast with a group of women at a great local restaurant. We chatted about the weather, our families and new ideas for the church. Around 7:45, the waitress/cook/owner came and asked what we wanted. Everyone said, “the usual.” She delivered everyone’s food 10 minutes later. I haven’t been in many places were people stayed long enough to put down roots like that. It’s great.
After preschool drop off, time for a meeting with several pastors in the area who are putting together a connectional youth group among the churches. It’s fun to see a new idea come to life. Never easy or smooth, but worth the conversations and resources. I hope youth in our area get some great chances to connect with each other and God through this new space.
My husband started an infant & toddler playgroup on Wednesdays so I spend about 30 minutes playing with Wesley and chatting with other parents. It’s a great way to make some friends and meet parents from the preschool. I’m thankful our church encourages us to use the space for families!
I check in on our Rotary group that meets each week. They’re doing some wonderful things in the community and we love their cookies!
In between meetings and lunch, it’s time for email and being available for the wonderful people who come through my door. Usually they just want to say hi. But sometimes a prayer and hug is much needed.
We’re starting a new space for parents and young kids to connect each month. So we got our home ready for a big group to join us for dinner. We had a great time and only one child ran through our screen door! Looking forward to these parents getting a space each month to be together and figure out life and faith.
Thursday
On Thursday, I’m doing final preparations for the message on Sunday. I practice it a couple times, finish my media for the screen and finalize our orders of worship for the different services.
I schedule one on one visits with a variety of people. Leaders of our administrative teams, staff members, people wanting to get more connected. I love these conversations.
I continue to work at setting aside time to be out in the community. Our Bishop reminds us that we’re appointed to our whole city, not just our physical church building. We hear that we should spend half our time out and about getting to know people and half our time inside the building. This is hard. Really hard. Every time I’m out meeting new people, I’m reminded this is incredibly wonderful work. People are usually intrigued at meeting not just a female pastor, but also a fairly young female pastor. They’ve got questions and I love to hear them. And yet, the daily tasks and deadlines of ministry are powerful. Tyranny of the urgent, right? So I’m always looking for opportunities to be in relationship with those outside of our local church, while also being present to the needs in our existing congregation.
When I first arrived in Marysville and started acclimating to this new leadership role, I felt overwhelmed at all that needed to be balanced. But as each week goes by, I’m slowly learning I can’t do it all. Novel thought, huh? Seriously though. Pastors like to be superhuman. People say they need us. But I know now on a deeper level that I will never please everybody. I can’t meet every need. Every idea we have doesn’t need to become reality. All I can do is prioritize my relationship with God, my family and care for myself. Then be present to the wonderful people in this community. We’re in this together and I love it!
More to come…
palmsupco.wordpress.com 