no time for targets

When you're training to be a pastor you get a year or so as what's called a 'probationer'.

In some ways it's a great time. You get to do all the sort of things that a minister does ... and someone else gets the blame!

But I heard of folk who, as part of their training, were required to 'do' some 35 'visits' a week. A kind of ecclesiastical fore-runner of the target-setting mentality which has captured the government's imagination.

I understand the reason why this target of 'visits' was set (at least, I think I do). But it became a bit of a box-ticking exercise where eventually meeting someone in the street was listed by the student as 'doing a visit' in order to meet the 'quota'.

Pastoral work simply doesn't work like that at all. Life, and its many vexing problems, is a lot more complicated than that.

Most of the pastoral work that I'm doing takes time. A lot of time.

There are urgent, complex, painful needs, with often a long and grievous history behind them all which gently needs teased out.

It can take a whole long afternoon or evening to begin to address such things. Carefully, prayerfully, honestly, gently, wisely, boldly, graciously - listening, probing, questioning, prompting, suggesting.

And looking to the Lord all the time to be helping and healing and moving things forward and opening the door to a future which has seemed to the person so bleak.

Today's been a bit like that. A couple of difficult pastoral needs where the Lord, I'm sure, is at work. Where help is being given. Where hope is being stirred. Where healing is starting to happen.

That's not all I've done, of course. There was a funeral, too, I attended. A meeting up town I was at. A few folk to sit with and see for a while.

But the large part of time has been spent on these pastoral needs. And all of them always take time.

That's what Jesus gave folk. Time.

The tax-man, Zac, a case in point. I mean .. goodness me, Jesus went for a meal to his house!

No way was he going to be able to fit some crazy target of 35 visits a week if he goes about it like that!

But a guy like Zacchaeus, with the problems he has .. well, he needs that sort of time.

So here's the bottom line, I guess. I'm not interested in targets. I'm interesed only in people. Bringing the Lord in his grace and his love, with all of his healing power - bringing the Lord to their side and seeing him change things for good.

You can do 35 visits a week, sure. But I'm not sure just what you accomplish thereby.

Because healing and help in the face of such complex needs always involve loads of time.

And, as the Beatles in an altogether different connection used to sing, even eight days a week is not enough to show I care.