It's funny, for a blog by a seminarian, I spend very little time talking about life after seminary. Perhaps that's because I don't have a friggn' clue what I'll be doing. Most often, I think about doing a chaplaincy somewhere, most compelling to me is hospice chaplaincy. Still, there are some things about the parish ministry that appeal to me.
As a lay person, I'm no slouch when it comes to church administration. I've made my way around the block when it comes to council meetings, reading financial statements, writing policies and even drafting and ratifying a constitution and some bylaws. While this sort of thing puts most people into a coma, I've found I've been able to further my lefty agenda under the radar, yet within plain viewing, by how things are put into a congregation's constitution or other important, but boring-sounding documents.
I would love the visitation part. I loved doing home visits in my past life when I was schlepping insurance for a "faith-based organization." Hanging out with the elderly has never been an issue for me. These folks deserve our time, and we have lots to learn from them, if we'd only slow down and be patient.
The writer in me would actually appreciate the exercise of writing a weekly sermon. I say this as I'm coming down from the high of delivering one of my better sermons to date -- at my old home congregation, no less. Without sounding all big on myself or anything, I think it went pretty well. It was a little light on the academic side of theology, but it was pretty strong in terms of pointing out what this particular congregation is doing well and challenging them to do more.
So, what's holding me back from embracing the idea of a full-time parish ministry? A lot of things. Some people are still surprised to hear I'm an introvert, but just because I can sometimes fake it doesn't mean I can consistently do so. I can seem aloof and uncaring sometimes. I think my personality probably wouldn't be great for a long-term relationship with a church community.
But, I have been toying with another idea...I mentioned it over a couple of beers after last semester's finals to some of my classmates, and they seemed to think it might work, too. I sometimes think being an interim minister might be a good solution. I can do a lot of the things I'm interested in, yet I can keep a little distance from some of the things that make me nuts (or at least be able to point them out to the congregation and know that I won't be there forever). I need to do more investigating about what I can do in this vein in my current denomination. I know the "other" denomination has "intentional interims" but I also know I'd probably lose my mind if I went back to that tradition on a full-time basis.
This particular posting isn't really going to be too interesting to others, but it dawned on me that I needed to spend at least a little time thinking through this question before the insanity of working full-time and going back to school part-time begins again. After all, I'm spending a ton of money and time to do this. I really should have at least a bit of a clue what I'm going to do with this education when I'm done, shouldn't I? Then, why do I have this funny feeling that any preconceived notions are going to be chewed up and spit out by the time I'm done?
If I were a believer in intercessory prayer, I'd ask you to say a prayer for me. What the hell, if you're the praying type give 'er a whack!
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1 comment:
Give 'er a whack! Amen!
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