Sundays are always past way too quickly! Before I know it, it's Monday again and I'm starting to turn my mind to the following Sunday's services. Putting it like that highlights what I see as two of the big 'occupational' hazards of the role of 'the minister' in a main-line denomination such as that to which I belong.
Hazard 1 is that of seeing life revolve around a Sunday. Sundays become the milestones in a preacher's life - and once they start being that, they can soon become mill-stones as well. I can see that clearly: and sometimes I feel it, too, acutely. That's not the way it's meant to be (though I know Sundays are important), for it feeds me the lie that that's the one day when things really happen. And that's a total distortion of what being a follower of Jesus is all about: it's an every-day sort of thing, the life and ministry to which he calls us.
Hazard 2 is that of finding that the task becomes a treadmill. Climbing through the week towards the mountain top of Sunday services; then down to earth and starting the long and tiring climb all over again when the Monday comes around. Who in their right mind would want that sort of life? It's certainly not the life that Jesus means for us to live!
So I try and vary the pattern. I try to ease my way into a Monday by doing different things (last week it was the dentist - but even that was good, as I've known the man for years and this is often the one and only chance we get to chat: and of course he does a lot more of that than me, given the constraints of the dentist's chair, which is maybe how it's meant to be!).
Today I watched a DVD, The Girl in the Cafe. Not simply for my relaxation, though that came into it. But as much on account of its theme, the way a single person can challenge the status quo and, seeking justice for the poor, can help to change the world. Which is not a million miles from the burden of the message that I'm given by the Lord for this coming Sunday's gathering of the people here. And of course, it all started in a cafe, a 'third place' where people start to talk.
That's not all I did, of course. But it was a start and a help. And it inspired me again to believe that such change can be wrought, and to get out on the streets and be out there with people and be doing my part to make such change result.
I called by on a lady newly into a Nursing Home - adapting to life in a new and unfamiliar environment: rather like the followers of Jesus are all required to do these days (I don't mean we're all going off to Nursing Homes, but we're having to adapt our following of Jesus to a new and strange environment).
And then at night I had a great session with a young couple in their home: the chat covered all sorts but not least how relationship happens with Jesus. How it starts and how it grows and where it leads. The Girl in the Cafe stuff all over again!
Hazard 1 is that of seeing life revolve around a Sunday. Sundays become the milestones in a preacher's life - and once they start being that, they can soon become mill-stones as well. I can see that clearly: and sometimes I feel it, too, acutely. That's not the way it's meant to be (though I know Sundays are important), for it feeds me the lie that that's the one day when things really happen. And that's a total distortion of what being a follower of Jesus is all about: it's an every-day sort of thing, the life and ministry to which he calls us.
Hazard 2 is that of finding that the task becomes a treadmill. Climbing through the week towards the mountain top of Sunday services; then down to earth and starting the long and tiring climb all over again when the Monday comes around. Who in their right mind would want that sort of life? It's certainly not the life that Jesus means for us to live!
So I try and vary the pattern. I try to ease my way into a Monday by doing different things (last week it was the dentist - but even that was good, as I've known the man for years and this is often the one and only chance we get to chat: and of course he does a lot more of that than me, given the constraints of the dentist's chair, which is maybe how it's meant to be!).
Today I watched a DVD, The Girl in the Cafe. Not simply for my relaxation, though that came into it. But as much on account of its theme, the way a single person can challenge the status quo and, seeking justice for the poor, can help to change the world. Which is not a million miles from the burden of the message that I'm given by the Lord for this coming Sunday's gathering of the people here. And of course, it all started in a cafe, a 'third place' where people start to talk.That's not all I did, of course. But it was a start and a help. And it inspired me again to believe that such change can be wrought, and to get out on the streets and be out there with people and be doing my part to make such change result.
I called by on a lady newly into a Nursing Home - adapting to life in a new and unfamiliar environment: rather like the followers of Jesus are all required to do these days (I don't mean we're all going off to Nursing Homes, but we're having to adapt our following of Jesus to a new and strange environment).
And then at night I had a great session with a young couple in their home: the chat covered all sorts but not least how relationship happens with Jesus. How it starts and how it grows and where it leads. The Girl in the Cafe stuff all over again!
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