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When “Minister” Is More Than a Job Title
It’s a really rotten day. You are sent to an emergency room in an ambulance, and after 8 hours you are admitted. Nurses in and out. Fluid, lots of fluid. Get this fever down. Tests and more tests. What to do about the child, the responsibilities? Your family scrambles to figure it all out.
The next morning there you lie, wondering what it means to your family that you can’t be there for them. Wondering at the strangeness of having your life abruptly put on hold. And then, there in the doorway is your minister, asking if you would like to spend a little time together, but not presuming to enter without an invitation. You can see that it’s just fine to say, "Not today". You also see it doesn’t matter how you look. It doesn’t matter that you can’t really hold up your end of a conversation. The conversation turns out to be easy. You find that there is a whole set of skills your minister has that you would never otherwise get to see.
And it feels so good to see a caring face, when you didn’t think you wanted to see anyone. It feels good to talk to someone who knows how hospitals work. It feels good to be with someone who can sit with you and think about the questions that swirl in your mind, or to just sit there gently talking about nothing in particular and yet be soothing.
And later, when you feel better, you wonder at the fact that visiting someone in a hospital is a skill: it can be done well or it can be done poorly. It’s hidden from most, and yet it is there for each of of us at PUC. You realize for the first time why “minister” is both a job title and a verb.
That was me. And as we approach the pledge drive, I am giving a lot of thought to the importance of having a full-time minister. Our minister may see us in some of the most vulnerable, and even intimate, moments of our lives. Our minister matters for many reasons, but this may be the most important. Please join me in increasing our pledges from last year. This year we only had enough in the budget for a 3/4 time minster. That’s not enough to meet our congregation’s pastoral needs. If you can’t imagine ever needing this for yourself, look around on Sunday morning. There are people you talk to every week who will need this, and it may not be the people you think.
Sincerely,
Lora Childers
Member 2016/2017 Pledge Drive Committee
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