Back to work
23/10/13 05:16
We’ll be home before noon today and back at work right away. There is a lot of work on my plate already. That is one thing that the ministry shares with many other jobs: the work must be done whether or not I am on vacation. A vacation is partly doing work ahead before leaving and partly catching up on work upon return. People’s lives go on while I travel. So there is a funeral to plan for Monday, youth group to meet tonight, a bulletin to go to press tomorrow, a newsletter to get out next week, our annual fall stewardship drive to manage and a long list of other things that must be done.
For a one-week trip, we have been pretty successful with this adventure. Susan has two sisters that live in two different states. We visited both of them in their homes on this trip. I have two brothers and two sisters. We visited both sisters in their homes and one of my brothers at the wedding and events around the wedding. We were able to make face-face contact with two nephews and a niece. We had substantial visits with a variety of family friends. And, of course, there were some glorious days visiting with our son, daughter-in-law and grandson. We even arranged a sleepover with our grandson so our son and daughter-in-law could go out for their wedding anniversary. We spent time in six different states, saw some glorious autumn scenery and got some good driving time, which is always productive in terms of conversation and planning for us. We stayed in motels about half of the time and in the homes of family members the other half.
And, in this day of electronic communication, we have stayed in touch daily with our work. I have been exchanging daily e-mails with colleagues in the sheriff’s chaplaincy about issues in that setting. We have been texting with our administrative colleague about everything from plans for Advent to the installation of the new sound system to pastoral concerns. We have been in touch with our minister of Christian Nurture about worship and events in November and December. And we have been in direct touch with two families in the congregation who experienced the death of loved ones during the time we were gone.
I frequently will comment that it is difficult for a casual observer to tell when I am working and when I am not. The two activities look very similar. A good example is that I ran the wedding rehearsal for my niece. Although I ask family members to form their own relationships and find their own pastors for family events, I do try to help where I am able. In this case, the minister charged more for the rehearsal than I do for a wedding, so my niece opted out of that expense. I stepped in and ran the rehearsal, something that is easy for me to do. Although it was a vacation activity it was exactly what I might have done had I been home and there had been a wedding. We don’t charge for rehearsals at our church. And certainly this vacation was filled with listening to other people and being available for emotional support in some times of transition and stress for others. I do that when I am not on vacation.
There are times when we need to step back and simply spend time away from people in order to recharge our energies and reconnect with some of our spiritual disciplines. Vacations are one way of doing that and we have often chosen to go to isolated locations on vacation in place of intense visiting with other people. But this wasn’t that kind of vacation. There wasn’t much rest. We had long days with fewer breaks than might be the case had we stayed at home. We were in intense contact with others from early in the morning until late at night.
Some of the members of the congregation will ask me if I rested on my vacation. It is a legitimate question. But I guess the answer is, “not really.” I just kept going. This is much more likely when we break our vacation into parts instead of taking it all at once. On the other hand, there is a lot that can happen if we take four weeks of vacation in a row. It is hard for people who attend church and live with only two weeks of vacation each year to understand the need for four weeks of vacation. Although I’ve had four weeks for all of my career and it is the standard for ministers, there are always critics of the practice. They don’t stop to think that ministers typically work six days a week and are on call on the seventh. I once asked one of the critics of the minister’s four weeks of vacation whether or not he would trade all of his weekends for another two weeks of vacation. “No way!” was his quick response.
Still, like others who are responsible for complex organizations, taking vacation is never easy. There are a lot of things that need to be managed whether or not the minister is present. There are plenty of people who can step in and do parts of the job, but no one who can maintain the big picture and keep all of the elements going at once. And after more than 18 years in this position, there are things that I do automatically that others don’t even think of doing. There are far too many things that I am the only one who knows how they are done. When I am around, I just don’t think of tasks that are easier to do myself than to have someone else do them. Then, when I am gone, there is no one who knows how to do those tasks. There are written instructions for programming the door codes, but no one else has ever don that since I became pastor of the church. There is a protocol for managing the security system. It is written down as well, but again no one else has ever done that. Ditto for programming the voice mail system. It has never failed during a vacation before and though it was repaired in our absence, new outgoing messages need to be recorded and individual phones need to be set up for voicemail.
So we return to work and it will seem as though we hadn’t had a vacation except for the extra tasks and extra hours demanded in the next few days. Still, it has all been worth it, and we were blessed with a wonderful trip.
Now it is time to get back to work.
For a one-week trip, we have been pretty successful with this adventure. Susan has two sisters that live in two different states. We visited both of them in their homes on this trip. I have two brothers and two sisters. We visited both sisters in their homes and one of my brothers at the wedding and events around the wedding. We were able to make face-face contact with two nephews and a niece. We had substantial visits with a variety of family friends. And, of course, there were some glorious days visiting with our son, daughter-in-law and grandson. We even arranged a sleepover with our grandson so our son and daughter-in-law could go out for their wedding anniversary. We spent time in six different states, saw some glorious autumn scenery and got some good driving time, which is always productive in terms of conversation and planning for us. We stayed in motels about half of the time and in the homes of family members the other half.
And, in this day of electronic communication, we have stayed in touch daily with our work. I have been exchanging daily e-mails with colleagues in the sheriff’s chaplaincy about issues in that setting. We have been texting with our administrative colleague about everything from plans for Advent to the installation of the new sound system to pastoral concerns. We have been in touch with our minister of Christian Nurture about worship and events in November and December. And we have been in direct touch with two families in the congregation who experienced the death of loved ones during the time we were gone.
I frequently will comment that it is difficult for a casual observer to tell when I am working and when I am not. The two activities look very similar. A good example is that I ran the wedding rehearsal for my niece. Although I ask family members to form their own relationships and find their own pastors for family events, I do try to help where I am able. In this case, the minister charged more for the rehearsal than I do for a wedding, so my niece opted out of that expense. I stepped in and ran the rehearsal, something that is easy for me to do. Although it was a vacation activity it was exactly what I might have done had I been home and there had been a wedding. We don’t charge for rehearsals at our church. And certainly this vacation was filled with listening to other people and being available for emotional support in some times of transition and stress for others. I do that when I am not on vacation.
There are times when we need to step back and simply spend time away from people in order to recharge our energies and reconnect with some of our spiritual disciplines. Vacations are one way of doing that and we have often chosen to go to isolated locations on vacation in place of intense visiting with other people. But this wasn’t that kind of vacation. There wasn’t much rest. We had long days with fewer breaks than might be the case had we stayed at home. We were in intense contact with others from early in the morning until late at night.
Some of the members of the congregation will ask me if I rested on my vacation. It is a legitimate question. But I guess the answer is, “not really.” I just kept going. This is much more likely when we break our vacation into parts instead of taking it all at once. On the other hand, there is a lot that can happen if we take four weeks of vacation in a row. It is hard for people who attend church and live with only two weeks of vacation each year to understand the need for four weeks of vacation. Although I’ve had four weeks for all of my career and it is the standard for ministers, there are always critics of the practice. They don’t stop to think that ministers typically work six days a week and are on call on the seventh. I once asked one of the critics of the minister’s four weeks of vacation whether or not he would trade all of his weekends for another two weeks of vacation. “No way!” was his quick response.
Still, like others who are responsible for complex organizations, taking vacation is never easy. There are a lot of things that need to be managed whether or not the minister is present. There are plenty of people who can step in and do parts of the job, but no one who can maintain the big picture and keep all of the elements going at once. And after more than 18 years in this position, there are things that I do automatically that others don’t even think of doing. There are far too many things that I am the only one who knows how they are done. When I am around, I just don’t think of tasks that are easier to do myself than to have someone else do them. Then, when I am gone, there is no one who knows how to do those tasks. There are written instructions for programming the door codes, but no one else has ever don that since I became pastor of the church. There is a protocol for managing the security system. It is written down as well, but again no one else has ever done that. Ditto for programming the voice mail system. It has never failed during a vacation before and though it was repaired in our absence, new outgoing messages need to be recorded and individual phones need to be set up for voicemail.
So we return to work and it will seem as though we hadn’t had a vacation except for the extra tasks and extra hours demanded in the next few days. Still, it has all been worth it, and we were blessed with a wonderful trip.
Now it is time to get back to work.