This job can really get to a person.
It is a ridiculous notion that 1 person is expected to fill the needs and expectations of a multitude of individuals, each with a differing priority agenda, and fill them now.
I know pastors encounter this regularly, but it still doesn't seem fair. They never trained us for this in seminary. If they did, would we still go out to these calls, bright eyed and filled with hope and Gospel? Maybe...
Through all this, I have found colleagues that often find themselves in the same predicament in this little community. This has been good. And many of them, my congregation members, so it deepens our understanding of ministry.
Jobs I now empathize with: school principals, hospital administrators, funeral home directors, and union leaders. (this is a short list, but it is a small town, after all)
The problem arises then, when even through our mutual experiences of unreasonable expectation and entitlement, suddenly, the collegiality and friendship is taken advantage of. The exact same behavior we lament over together is used against a colleague and it forms a wedge between community leaders.
And the whole community feels it- and is paralyzed to do much about it.
Sometimes I wish we had a support group for this. Perhaps a leaders anonymous. LA. A 12 step program which helps us understand the power we have in this community, how to manage it, how to understand our abuse of it, and ultimately realize that it is not ours to control.
How can we find Grace in positions of power if we are so weary from the onslaught of raw human need and unreasonable entitlement?
2 comments:
I know pastors encounter this regularly, but it still doesn't seem fair. They never trained us for this in seminary. If they did, would we still go out to these calls, bright eyed and filled with hope and Gospel? Maybe...
I don't know about your experiences. I was definitely warned about this, taught about it; as much as one can learn in a classroom and discussion setting, and from reading books. Of course, my perspective on this may be different in a year or two.
By the way, I was assigned to the South-Central Wisconsin Synod.
jeepers... sounds like hard times are upon you. prayer. more prayer. and make sure you take time for yourself in the midst of the needy hoard at your door...
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