baptism by fire
Life seems to be happening faster than I can blog about it. I suppose that's good as I'm spending more time involved in living life than writing about it. Or something like that.
Yesterday I had my first real pastoral care call and it was quite a doosey! The church where I actually have pastoral care duties is the first one that I visited. I remeber telling Marnie at the time that I didn't think there was any way that they would actually call me in a pastoral emergency while the pastor is in France. I said the same thing to my friends Josh and Jon the other night as we cruised Portland. So you can imagine my surprise when I not only got a call, but also had to deal with some pretty intense stuff. I have to admit, I haven't had much time to process the whole experience, which I imagaine is what I'm doing to some extent now. On one hand it felt good (humbling and an honor) to be there for someone in a time of such pronounced need. On the other hand, I felt woefully unprepared and inadequate. To be honest, I still feel a little drained from the whole experience.
My sermon on Sunday, which also drained me, went over pretty well. Having not had the experience of worshipping at that church before I preached there, I was a little surprised by the atmosphere. For this being the church that might not be around in a year, it seemed very vibrant and alive. Certainly you can't get a church's full story in the amount of time that I was there, but it seems like they are just wrestling with some hard questions, not dying. I feel that some of the churches I visited before this past Sunday were closer to death than this one, though none of them thankfully seems ready to check out.
Those of you with any connection tothe PC(USA) have no doubt heard about the 150 million dollar bandaid the presbyterian church was given. Here, it seems to be the only thing from GA that anyone wants to talk about. It almost feels like it was planned that way: a well intentioned and incredibly generous diversion from the church's real issues. 150 million is alot of money, gaudy in some ways. But it won't solve the church's real problems because the church's real problems aren't financial.
I'm grumpy today. I shouldn't blog when I'm grumpy.
Yesterday I had my first real pastoral care call and it was quite a doosey! The church where I actually have pastoral care duties is the first one that I visited. I remeber telling Marnie at the time that I didn't think there was any way that they would actually call me in a pastoral emergency while the pastor is in France. I said the same thing to my friends Josh and Jon the other night as we cruised Portland. So you can imagine my surprise when I not only got a call, but also had to deal with some pretty intense stuff. I have to admit, I haven't had much time to process the whole experience, which I imagaine is what I'm doing to some extent now. On one hand it felt good (humbling and an honor) to be there for someone in a time of such pronounced need. On the other hand, I felt woefully unprepared and inadequate. To be honest, I still feel a little drained from the whole experience.
My sermon on Sunday, which also drained me, went over pretty well. Having not had the experience of worshipping at that church before I preached there, I was a little surprised by the atmosphere. For this being the church that might not be around in a year, it seemed very vibrant and alive. Certainly you can't get a church's full story in the amount of time that I was there, but it seems like they are just wrestling with some hard questions, not dying. I feel that some of the churches I visited before this past Sunday were closer to death than this one, though none of them thankfully seems ready to check out.
Those of you with any connection tothe PC(USA) have no doubt heard about the 150 million dollar bandaid the presbyterian church was given. Here, it seems to be the only thing from GA that anyone wants to talk about. It almost feels like it was planned that way: a well intentioned and incredibly generous diversion from the church's real issues. 150 million is alot of money, gaudy in some ways. But it won't solve the church's real problems because the church's real problems aren't financial.
I'm grumpy today. I shouldn't blog when I'm grumpy.
cpe helps a lot with the pastoral call bits. my first home visit at this last church the lady had no nose. i was preapared for this in cpe by having to determine that, if a guy was naked in the room, i would not enter. so relates.
sounds like your church needs a shot of self confidence. i'm big on affirming to a congregation that they are vibrant and full of the spirit. it's amazing what that can do.
Posted by
Kathryn Craven |
11:30 PM
CPE might be a helpful thing. I think I handled the actual situation pretty well. I just wasn't ready for how I felt afterwards.
The church needs a shot of confidence, alright. The problem is, I can give them that shot al I want, but if the pastor is saying something different it won't matter that much. Still, I think you're right. It's what the church neeeds to hear.
Posted by
dlweston |
2:42 PM
the whole intent of cpe is not to learn how to be with others but figure out what the hell to do with yourself. it's a bitch, but does help in the long-run.
i'll look up those scriptures in the next post and repsond later even though the commenting link isn't currently working for some reason.
Posted by
Kathryn Craven |
12:24 PM