Time
07/01/14 05:38
January is a busy month for us. There are some year-end reports that need to be made to keep the business side of the church flowing and our congregation has its annual meeting at the end of the month. The annual meeting means annual reports, which is the biggest print and on-line document we produce each year. Our annual reports usually run over 30 pages and we put a lot of work into the reports to make them visually appealing and easy for members to find the information that they want. I believe that visual appearance is important. Annual reports aren’t exactly “first impression” documents. Visitors and guests rarely ask for a copy. But they are a statement of who we are at a particular moment in our history. When I first became minister of this congregation, I went through past annual reports to get a flavor of the congregation and to get a sense of possible new directions for the future. Looking through past reports gives a thumbnail sketch of the progress that has been made.
Sometimes it feels as if things aren’t changing very quickly. However, looking through the stack of annual reports reveals that a lot has happened.
Another reason that January feels busy to us is that we shift gears and emphasis from the Christmas season. Epiphany seems like it might flow naturally from Christmas, but behind the scenes there is a lot of taking down decorations, storing candles, putting away figures, figuring out what to do with leftover poinsettias and such. The team of dedicated volunteers at the church usually makes light work of these chores, but there is a certain level of organization that is required.
And then there is the weather.
You don’t need another blog post about the weather. However, the recent “Polar Vortex” that has been making news across the U.S. is a good example. The truth is that it never really got all that cold. Except for people suffering from illness or those for whom mobility is a challenge, there was no need to limit many activities. Dress warmly and head out. But the news made the storm sound much more dangerous and threatening than the reality. So people stayed home. Attendance at church last Sunday was one of the lowest that I can remember. I don’t blame folks for staying home. It is just one of the realities of living where we do - it is more challenging to plan events and activities when you don’t know how many people will attend.
Cold weather can make things take a bit more time, as well. Shoveling snow, chipping ice off of windshields and other activities mean that getting from one place to another simply takes more time. Just layering up with coats and hats and gloves takes more time.
And our business is always the business of interruptions. A phone call from someone who just needs to talk is important. Special events like funerals often cannot be predicted. We don’t know in advance what new challenges and opportunities will be put in front of us. I am often asked, when giving a reference for a colleague, about organizational styles. Pastoral search committees often think that their position requires the pastor to be very organized to balance the myriad of tasks that are before the pastor. I suppose that organization skills are important, but the truth is that there are too many factors that can’t be controlled for anyone to be truly organized. A far more helpful question, it seems to me, is, “How does this person deal with disorder and chaos?” I can plan in advance to do my exegesis and scripture study first thing Wednesday morning, but all it takes is a phone call from someone with a family member in the hospital or a funeral to mean that I have to find another time for that chore. I can say that I will keep office hours at a particular time on a particular day, but the number of hours in the office has to be balanced with the need for me to be engaged in ministry in many other locations. The need to juggle many different challenges at the same time isn’t unique to the pastoral ministry, but it is very real in our vocation.
The good news is that boredom is a foreign concept in the kind of life that I live. There are always more things to be done than there is time to ge them done. When I have a few spare moments, there are always multiple things that can occupy the time.
The challenge is that there are too many things that have to do with quality and life and quality of ministry that cannot be measured in time. Genuine prayer is not a slave to the clock. I don’t know how many conversations I have had with members of the congregation about the length of quiet prayers in our public worship services. Sometimes it seems too short for our people. Sometimes it seems too long. The truth is that if I am paying attention to the time, I’m not really praying. Being distracted by the clock detracts from the focus that is needed for genuine prayer. The same could be said for many other aspects of the ministry. How long or short should an ideal hospital visit be? While I am absolutely convinced that quality is more important than quantity when visiting people struggling with illness, each situation is different. One of the most important factors is how much I pay attention to the other person. If I am in tune with their feelings, I will know when it is time for me to make my exit and leave them to the business of recovery.
People ask me, “How long does it take you to prepare a sermon?” The amount of time varies greatly depending upon the particular text and what is going on in our community at the time. Sometimes I struggle and struggle with a text and never feel that my sermon is finished, but we have to go ahead anyway because the time of worship has arrived. Sometimes I feel confident that I have a very strong sermon and it doesn’t require much time beyond the middle of the week. I sometimes wish that I could predict how much time I would need to prepare, but it just doesn’t work that way.
The concept of time is worthy of several essays that have yet to be written. I think it was Einstein who said, “Time is an illusion.” He might have been right.
Sometimes it feels as if things aren’t changing very quickly. However, looking through the stack of annual reports reveals that a lot has happened.
Another reason that January feels busy to us is that we shift gears and emphasis from the Christmas season. Epiphany seems like it might flow naturally from Christmas, but behind the scenes there is a lot of taking down decorations, storing candles, putting away figures, figuring out what to do with leftover poinsettias and such. The team of dedicated volunteers at the church usually makes light work of these chores, but there is a certain level of organization that is required.
And then there is the weather.
You don’t need another blog post about the weather. However, the recent “Polar Vortex” that has been making news across the U.S. is a good example. The truth is that it never really got all that cold. Except for people suffering from illness or those for whom mobility is a challenge, there was no need to limit many activities. Dress warmly and head out. But the news made the storm sound much more dangerous and threatening than the reality. So people stayed home. Attendance at church last Sunday was one of the lowest that I can remember. I don’t blame folks for staying home. It is just one of the realities of living where we do - it is more challenging to plan events and activities when you don’t know how many people will attend.
Cold weather can make things take a bit more time, as well. Shoveling snow, chipping ice off of windshields and other activities mean that getting from one place to another simply takes more time. Just layering up with coats and hats and gloves takes more time.
And our business is always the business of interruptions. A phone call from someone who just needs to talk is important. Special events like funerals often cannot be predicted. We don’t know in advance what new challenges and opportunities will be put in front of us. I am often asked, when giving a reference for a colleague, about organizational styles. Pastoral search committees often think that their position requires the pastor to be very organized to balance the myriad of tasks that are before the pastor. I suppose that organization skills are important, but the truth is that there are too many factors that can’t be controlled for anyone to be truly organized. A far more helpful question, it seems to me, is, “How does this person deal with disorder and chaos?” I can plan in advance to do my exegesis and scripture study first thing Wednesday morning, but all it takes is a phone call from someone with a family member in the hospital or a funeral to mean that I have to find another time for that chore. I can say that I will keep office hours at a particular time on a particular day, but the number of hours in the office has to be balanced with the need for me to be engaged in ministry in many other locations. The need to juggle many different challenges at the same time isn’t unique to the pastoral ministry, but it is very real in our vocation.
The good news is that boredom is a foreign concept in the kind of life that I live. There are always more things to be done than there is time to ge them done. When I have a few spare moments, there are always multiple things that can occupy the time.
The challenge is that there are too many things that have to do with quality and life and quality of ministry that cannot be measured in time. Genuine prayer is not a slave to the clock. I don’t know how many conversations I have had with members of the congregation about the length of quiet prayers in our public worship services. Sometimes it seems too short for our people. Sometimes it seems too long. The truth is that if I am paying attention to the time, I’m not really praying. Being distracted by the clock detracts from the focus that is needed for genuine prayer. The same could be said for many other aspects of the ministry. How long or short should an ideal hospital visit be? While I am absolutely convinced that quality is more important than quantity when visiting people struggling with illness, each situation is different. One of the most important factors is how much I pay attention to the other person. If I am in tune with their feelings, I will know when it is time for me to make my exit and leave them to the business of recovery.
People ask me, “How long does it take you to prepare a sermon?” The amount of time varies greatly depending upon the particular text and what is going on in our community at the time. Sometimes I struggle and struggle with a text and never feel that my sermon is finished, but we have to go ahead anyway because the time of worship has arrived. Sometimes I feel confident that I have a very strong sermon and it doesn’t require much time beyond the middle of the week. I sometimes wish that I could predict how much time I would need to prepare, but it just doesn’t work that way.
The concept of time is worthy of several essays that have yet to be written. I think it was Einstein who said, “Time is an illusion.” He might have been right.