I got to the church about 6:20 a.m. and the lights in Fellowshp Hall were on. Pastor Daniel Song from the Lord Glory Korean Methodist Congregation was holding his early morning prayer meeting (Who says pastors only work one day a week? :-) There were two of them in the same building as the sun was coming up in the middle of the week!)
I went right to work writing a few articles for the monthly newsletter. At 8:00 a.m. I paused to send an e-mail to the Diaconate about changing the date of our meeting and to ask for an approval of a donation to a young family who needed help getting into an apartment and out of the shelter in Willimantic. A few minute later the phone rang and it just happened to be the young woman saying that they definitely had the apartment if they could come up with $800.
At 9:00 a.m. I received the first of several phone calls. Sandy Stone fields most of them after she gets in but until then I am on my own. At 9:30 a.m. a couple stopped in to talk about an upcoming memorial service I was officiating at for a family member. We chatted a bit and then I showed them the kitchen and Fellowship Hall so they could make plans for the little reception that would follow the service.
Around 10:00 a.m. one of our members came in to do the year end audit of the church books. He grabbed some file folders and went to work. A few times he came in to ask questions. Luckily I could answer most of them even though I am not the treasurer. The pastor has to have a pretty good idea of what we buy and how bills are paid because he or she is basically in charge of the day to day operations at the church. Being the pastor of a small church is like running a business in a lot of ways. If anything needs to be bought, any decision needs to be made of equipment, it is the pastor who usually make the decision. Of course major purchases that can be scheduled always go through the appropriate committee. I'm talking about paper, postage, oil deliveries, subscriptions, supplies and things like that.
At 11:45 a.m. I had a parishioner stop in to drop something off and at noon I was off to the weekly Rotary meeting. I belong to the local Rotary Club. The group does a lot of good and it is one of the ways I try to connect to the world outside of the church. It is so easy to become isolated in an ivory tower of theological irrelevance in the ministry. Belonging to a group like the Rotary Club or the volunteer fire department or even the local book club keeps us grounded in the real world.
While I was at the Rotary meeting I caught up with the Rabbi and we made a luncheon date. Last fall we talked about getting together to share a bit about our traditions after the new year. I think it is healthy to learn how other people of faith from different religions approach life, scripture and faith.
By 1:30 p.m. I was back at the office and deep into my writing for the newsletter. This edition is going out nearly ten days after the first of the year. It is going to be a big one though with lots of photos and news about what has happened over the holidays. In between stories I sent out a few emails to schedule upcoming meetings for the Executive Committee of our Baptist Nursing Home and the Personnel Committee of our State Convention. I happen to be chairing both of them right now. This time of year there are a lot of meetings and I have to admit the stress of being stretched between all the commitments does hit home. Usually all the meetings tend to be spread out a bit more.
At 3:00 p.m. I packed up my lap top and headed home. I had to meet my daughter there because she was having friends over. Before I left though I had a visit from a woman who visited our church for the first time last Sunday. She came in to ask for prayer and to introduce herself. I used to say that this is what I get paid for. Everything else is icing on the cake. I love to pray with people. A long time ago I learned that it is the one thing I can do, the one gift God gave me that I can share to help connect people directly to Him. When t happens it is magical.
I will never forget the day one of our softball players was seriously injured in a collision at home plate. I felt so impotent to do anything as I watched him lie there and we stood around waiting for an ambulance to come. I got on my knees beside him and prayed. As I did so, I felt him move. It was only afterwards that I realized the miracle. He had been paralyzed from the waist down after the accident. Afterwards he made a miraculous recovery. While I was rueing the fact that I couldn't do anything, God put it in my head that I was doing the one thing no one else could do. The doctors had their gifts and skills, and so did all the other medical personnel. But what was needed at that moment was for someone to pray with the faith of Moses.
Anyway, I left for home and got back on my laptop to do some more on the newsletter. I took a call from our Executive Minister about the upcoming meeting in Hartford and at 4:30 p.m. my eyes began to droop a bit so I decided to take a power nap. I laid down for twenty minutes, managed to doze off and got back up. I grabbed a bite to eat and then went back to church for a meeting of the Nominating committee at 6:00 p.m. We finished the meeting jut before 7:00 p.m. and I ran in to meet with the Praise team as they practiced for an upcoming service. After fifteen minutes there I decided to skip the Bible Study I was going to visit.
I needed to put in a little more work on this week's sermon and to begin putting down my thoughts for the weekly epistle for the newspaper. Both are due by mid morning on Thursday. So I went home and locked myself in the office at home until a few minutes ago when I thought I would share this glimpse into my day with you.
Well if you ever wondered what the minister does, now you know. I could have bored you with a few more stories but since this is going to be my longest blog entry ever and you have already stopped reading by now, I think I'll simply say good night.
I'll begin again in the morning and maybe I'll have something really fun to share.
Cal
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