Left home at 4 pm yesterday to do a pastoral visit before presbytery, eventually got home feel ing discouraged tired and hungry at 10.20pm! Discouraged because it seems to be half the churches in our presbytery are vacant and the conferencing session threw up that the way forward for the church was OLMs. Supporting full time ministers. A the moment there are two in training given the geographical range of our presbytery we're going to be run ragged! Then Church of Scotland is in crisis because there are few candidates coming out ( only 7 I think for full time ministry this year) churches don't seem willing to close buildings and unite with other congregations to facilitate an ongoing ministry and it all looks rather bleak:( I'm just having a whinge cos its raining and I didn't get out for a run this morning. And I hate late nights. ) As well as that I'm a bit stressed out by the thought of final review on Monday, its been a long week!
If we're run ragged we are not going to be able to effectively serve anyone. It's regrettable, but if we want to hold down jobs, or see our families, then we have to say "No" occasionally. We have to set limits based on what we are capable of and we need to stick to them, otherwise we are going to burn ourselves out and won't be able to serve anyone.
ReplyDeletePrayers ascending for Monday!
Unfortunately, the reliance on OLMs, readers and congregation members to support ministers is increasing. As I see it, urban areas get the good deals, as even if a church closes, there's usually another nearby. If a rural church closes, links or unites with another church, the geographical area increased significantly. Even a full-time minister will toil - I know of some parishes where it's a 30 mile drive up a single track road between services. As I see it, I am called to ministry, not driving.
ReplyDeleteBut, the church has been here before. It might have been 500 years ago, but there was a lack of ministers, large geographical areas and a reliance on readers and elders to support the minster. All of this happened before and all of this will happen again...
Best for Monday.