I'm Leaving! Sabbatical Begins!

Portions of this article are quoted or adapted from the writing of Rev. Leah Robberts-Mosser who shared a pastors tasks on Facebook.  Found here.Here

 Beginning Tuesday, February 1,  I will be on sabbatical through May 14. I’d like to take a moment to write about what pastors do, about sabbaticals and why it's a good that pastors have them. 

A friend in this congregation said to me shortly after meeting him, "You have the hardest job," This was not a reflection about this or any other congregation. It is a delight to lead, teach, and minister among each and all of you....I love being your pastor and being in mutual ministry with you. Still, even when you are pastoring a congregation you love and that works so well together, pastoring is still the hardest job. 

This friend gave a couple of reasons for his perspective: Pastors have to wear many hats: CEO and janitor, caregiver and boundary setter, financial guru and fund raiser, evangelist and moral conscience in the community, and activist for “the least of these," cheerleader, truth-teller, entrepreneur, and--in these days—midwife to new ways to exist as a community of faith. 

Being a pastor is emotionally taxing. We have to hold different boundaries with the people that are completely different than those of anyone else in the helping field.  

• With tender hearts we listen to you talk about your anxiety and anger, your addictions, and your affairs. 
• We sit with a parent to help explain to their child that their other parent has died. 
• We remind you that you are forgiven even when you cannot forgive yourself, even when others refuse to do the same, especially then. 
• We are the person you talk to when you don't know where else to turn. 
• We figure out whom to call when you don't know who to call. 
• We sit in hospital rooms, funeral parlors, emergency rooms, and ordinary rooms where unspeakably awful things have happened. 
• We show up with grace and cups of coffee and sometimes those things are exactly same. 
• We hold your broken hearts in our hands and try to patch them up with the love of God. 
• We do patch jobs on poverty when desperate folks call or drop by the church. We fill gas tanks and buy diapers, pay prescription costs.
• Sometimes pastors witness your rage....sometimes it gets projected at us, especially when there are things you cannot control or do not understand. We have to learn to differentiate, and heal our own brokenness too. 

And we do these things discreetly.... never drawing attention to those helped or ourselves. We are on call 24/7, 365 days a year. Even on days off and on vacations, we get texts, emails, and calls about church – like “is it time to go virtual again?”.

It's not all broken hearts, though. Sometimes we get to witness your joy.  

• We're often the first to sing over your newborn child
• We bless your adoptions
• We officiate at your weddings
• We celebrate graduations and new jobs
• We celebrate anniversaries and birthdays with you.

In between preaching, laughing with the children, and pastoring, we brainstorm and trouble shoot. We lead and support the staff, work to keep the staff, and work to find new staff members when something doesn’t work out. We run the numbers, choose the resources, and train and coach volunteers. And then pastors show up to remind everyone that we are the Body of Christ and we are loved, endlessly. 

We do all of these things every week while trying to think theologically and frame current events in terms of our collective faith, while experiencing these events in real time. We are often only one step away from the surge, and sometimes it nips at our heels. We're lucky if that's all it does. 

And, in today's post-Christian era, we do all this with a fraction of the resources our predecessors had. Denominations are dying out -- we're having to create systems of support that were standard issue not so long ago. 

This is the work of pastoring people, God's beloved, made-in-God's-own-image messy, impossible, endlessly loved people. It is unlike any other work. This "odd and wondrous calling" is such a gift. And it's a weighty one.

And it is exhausting!  COVID has made this all the more challenging. Pastors have had to do "on the job" retraining to learn how to record or live stream, edit videos, and broadcast worship.  We've had to invent new ways of caring for the members of the congregation and help them keep connected to one another.  We've learned new technology like Zoom and Facebook Live.  We've learned how to teach confirmation with no students in the room, and lead communion while the sanctuary is empty.  All while dealing with our own loss of connection, family challenges, death of loved ones, and exhaustion.  It is no wonder that there are more people leaving ministry outside of retirement than at any other time.  Or, to put that another way, young pastors are leaving ministry  in droves AS WELL AS people who are retirement age. This going to lead to a huge shortage of clergy for churches that survive this panDAMNit.    

Sabbaticals are designed to allow pastors an extended period of time in order to regain the sacred rhythm of rest. For me, this sabbatical means that I can turn off my "minister's brain" and do something completely unrelated to ministry, something for me, myself, and I -- something that I've always wanted to do but could never make/take the time to do.  Getting away for a long enough time to rebuild the roof of my life, and stabilize the professional and emotional beams that hold up the walls of my living. Learning to be fluent in Spanish, and walking the El Camino both promise to renew my brain, heal my spirit, and revitalize my passion for ministry.

Sabbaticals are designed to allow congregations to stretch their wings and be self-directing.  For FCCLG, this means hearing a great variety of preachers, actively participating in the ministry of administration, thinking of new ways and new places to do the work of the church.  It also means that the lay leadership will have to step up and be the church in a more meaningful way, a way that you will discover and carry out.  

And so, I bid you so long for now.  I will post here and on facebook in a one way conversation that will keep you abreast of where I am and what I'm doing.  

Remember that YOU all are the hands, feet, and mind of Christ in this place. You have a calling and a ministry.  Be the church. Renew the faith.  Revitalize the message of God's extravagant grace and abundant love.  

Hasta que nos encontremos de nuevo..... paz.  

Carly