World of Cheese

sze 18 május 2016

A year(+1 day) of being a Pastor

Posted by Andy in Theology   

On Pentecostal Monday 2015 (A National Holiday) - I was officially ordained, on crutches, in a kilt as a Pentecostal minster. Here are some of my random thoughts from the first year in office:

  1. The Best decision I ever made was stepping back from being the Pastor at the center and running church with two other equal elders. Bela, Csaba and the eldership has really grown into some thing beautiful which works well for our situtation. I'm not sure how much the local and national church understand what we've done here in Szeged - People still look to me as the All-singing/dancing answer to their every need.
  2. Church is more like farming that you think - You have good years, bad years. Sometimes the sheep do well, whilst the chickens don't. Sometimes external factors hamper, sometime internal. The farm imagery works when you realise you keep on going, a Farmer never only plants a field once.
  3. Working for and in Church unity on a large interchurch scale can be hard work, slow, frustrating but ultimately AWESOME
  4. Organising, communication and involvement is the key for church empowerment - Usually only bad things happen naturally - You won't get a field of wheat if you don't plant seed, the only natural growth will be weeds!
  5. Things going wrong at church feel like a body blow - It is much harder to wash ones hands of trouble, problems, conflicts and it affects me much longer than the drive home, can be days/weeks
  6. There is an amazing lack of general support from the church - People are eager to complain or tell me what I should/should not be doing rather than to support, encourage or build-up.
  7. Change is a slow thing - New culture, ideas, values take a long time to sink in.
  8. No week is predictable - Sometimes i think it should be awesome and it's a bit flat and the other times i'm wondering "this is going to be terrible" and it is AWESOME!
  9. Enabling people to be men/woman of God needs them to take responsibility for themselves and giving them the space/time/freedom to make their own choices.

    
 
 

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