Mentors
24/11/14 05:25
I’m not one for remembering my dreams, but last night I woke with a dream clear in my memory. I was having a conversation with Roger Knight, who was one of my mentors in the early years of my ministry. Roger was our region’s minister of the Office for Church Life and Leadership. The Office, known as OCLL was a part of our church’s national structure at a time when there were resources for innovation and creativity in that setting. Unlike other national structures, the office was regionally deployed, with a dozen offices spread across the nation. The group produced the latest version of the United Church of Christ Book of Worship, the Leaders’ Box, the minister’s profile form that was in place for most of my career, a significant revision of the Manual on the Ministry, manuals for church history projects, the Pilgrimage retreats, and dozens of other projects. In those years, the executive minister of OCLL was Reuben Sheares.
In my dream, Roger and I had met up at General Synod and were discussing my ministry in the church I currently serve. General Synod is the biennial national gathering of our church. I have attended several, serving as a youth advisor, an agency representative, a corporate board member and a delegate. The assembly draws as many visitors as delegates and is a pretty good place for meeting up with others from the church, but not the best place for in depth conversations, because everyone has lots of meetings and appointments and obligations. In the dream, we were able to have a relaxed conversation that probably would not have been possible had it not been a dream. His advice to me was sound - to keep on with the blended worship style, to not be too swayed by critics while keeping a listening process in motion, to remember new members as well as more established members, and to put in the time required to craft solid liturgy.
Roger discussed my ministry with me many times when I was serving as a beginning pastor in North Dakota. We never had a discussion about the congregation I currently serve. And Roger died three years ago after a short and intense round with Burkitt’s lymphoma. He had retired and moved to a church-related retirement community five or six years earlier.
Roger was about 20 years older than I, a very good age for a mentor and guide. And he had a delightfully calm manor that was a good offset to my occasional tendency to make things seem a bit worse than they really were. He was wise in the organizational structures and politics of church life and pastoral in his manner.
The dream isn’t particularly significant, but it does remind me of the truly great mentors who have been a part of my life. It often seems as if I am a combination of all of the things that I learned from others. Roger is definitely a model for the way in which I work with church boards and committees and my style of leadership in wider church settings. One doesn’t need to be the star or center of attention to make a positive contribution to the process.
Thinking of Roger also got me to thinking of others in the OCLL. William Hulteen was a brilliant theological thinker who could often find just the right words. My style of writing was deeply influenced by Bill’s complex and fascinating mind. Reuben Sheares was a preacher’s preacher, whose style of preaching was often imitated, but never replicated. I think that I am one of those imitators. Reuben had a way of so internalizing a passage of scripture that it came out in every direction - his gestures, his words, his motions, his enthusiasm. He could take you inside the text in a way that changed your understanding and the way you lived your life. It was Reuben, not a seminary professor, who encouraged me to move away from dependence on written manuscripts and toward memorization and internalization of the scriptural texts.
The list of mentors who have shaped my ministry is far too long for a single blog. I am fortunate to have encountered excellent and dedicated ministers who were eager to share their craft and passion for the church. The dream, however, reminds me of something far deeper than the encounters of the past. The great mentors in our lives become a part of our identity. Their guidance and advice becomes so much a part of who we are that it is available even when they are not.
The funeral for Roger Knight may have concluded years ago, but his presence in my thinking, my ministry and my decisions continues. His sage advice is part of my identity and part of how I work with others.
It seems to me that much of what we have learned from the truly great mentors of our lives has been handed down for many generations. Roger had been mentored by wise pastors in his career and they in turn had been mentored by others. We all are inheritors of a long line of wisdom that is carried from generation to generation by able and competent pastors.
That means, of course, that it is my task to pass on that which I have received. I’m not sure that I’m much of a mentor for younger pastors. We don’t have many opportunities to meet and talk and exchange ideas. Perhaps my dream is a gentle reminder that the love and passion and experience I carry for this particular congregation needs to be shared with other leaders in careful and intentional ways. We have had some conversations about how we undertake the task of transferring leadership over the next decade and those conversations need to continue.
When I was ordained, I was ordained as pastor AND teacher. Ministers often forget how essential the teaching side of our profession is. We are called to teach in everything that we do.
I have benefitted from some great teachers in the span of my career. Teaching others is as important as other things that occupy my time. And teaching already occupies my mind.
In my dream, Roger and I had met up at General Synod and were discussing my ministry in the church I currently serve. General Synod is the biennial national gathering of our church. I have attended several, serving as a youth advisor, an agency representative, a corporate board member and a delegate. The assembly draws as many visitors as delegates and is a pretty good place for meeting up with others from the church, but not the best place for in depth conversations, because everyone has lots of meetings and appointments and obligations. In the dream, we were able to have a relaxed conversation that probably would not have been possible had it not been a dream. His advice to me was sound - to keep on with the blended worship style, to not be too swayed by critics while keeping a listening process in motion, to remember new members as well as more established members, and to put in the time required to craft solid liturgy.
Roger discussed my ministry with me many times when I was serving as a beginning pastor in North Dakota. We never had a discussion about the congregation I currently serve. And Roger died three years ago after a short and intense round with Burkitt’s lymphoma. He had retired and moved to a church-related retirement community five or six years earlier.
Roger was about 20 years older than I, a very good age for a mentor and guide. And he had a delightfully calm manor that was a good offset to my occasional tendency to make things seem a bit worse than they really were. He was wise in the organizational structures and politics of church life and pastoral in his manner.
The dream isn’t particularly significant, but it does remind me of the truly great mentors who have been a part of my life. It often seems as if I am a combination of all of the things that I learned from others. Roger is definitely a model for the way in which I work with church boards and committees and my style of leadership in wider church settings. One doesn’t need to be the star or center of attention to make a positive contribution to the process.
Thinking of Roger also got me to thinking of others in the OCLL. William Hulteen was a brilliant theological thinker who could often find just the right words. My style of writing was deeply influenced by Bill’s complex and fascinating mind. Reuben Sheares was a preacher’s preacher, whose style of preaching was often imitated, but never replicated. I think that I am one of those imitators. Reuben had a way of so internalizing a passage of scripture that it came out in every direction - his gestures, his words, his motions, his enthusiasm. He could take you inside the text in a way that changed your understanding and the way you lived your life. It was Reuben, not a seminary professor, who encouraged me to move away from dependence on written manuscripts and toward memorization and internalization of the scriptural texts.
The list of mentors who have shaped my ministry is far too long for a single blog. I am fortunate to have encountered excellent and dedicated ministers who were eager to share their craft and passion for the church. The dream, however, reminds me of something far deeper than the encounters of the past. The great mentors in our lives become a part of our identity. Their guidance and advice becomes so much a part of who we are that it is available even when they are not.
The funeral for Roger Knight may have concluded years ago, but his presence in my thinking, my ministry and my decisions continues. His sage advice is part of my identity and part of how I work with others.
It seems to me that much of what we have learned from the truly great mentors of our lives has been handed down for many generations. Roger had been mentored by wise pastors in his career and they in turn had been mentored by others. We all are inheritors of a long line of wisdom that is carried from generation to generation by able and competent pastors.
That means, of course, that it is my task to pass on that which I have received. I’m not sure that I’m much of a mentor for younger pastors. We don’t have many opportunities to meet and talk and exchange ideas. Perhaps my dream is a gentle reminder that the love and passion and experience I carry for this particular congregation needs to be shared with other leaders in careful and intentional ways. We have had some conversations about how we undertake the task of transferring leadership over the next decade and those conversations need to continue.
When I was ordained, I was ordained as pastor AND teacher. Ministers often forget how essential the teaching side of our profession is. We are called to teach in everything that we do.
I have benefitted from some great teachers in the span of my career. Teaching others is as important as other things that occupy my time. And teaching already occupies my mind.