Wondering Presbyterian

              I’m watching a learning module series on volunteering (part of The Small Church Academy…oh my gosh, if you haven’t heard of it GO LOOK IT UP. It’s amazing.). Volunteering is such a huge part of church life. I confess as a pastor, I often have to remind myself that my expectations of volunteers need to be based on the volunteers expectations and not my own. By that, I mean I can give extra time to church because the church literally gives me a pay check. I do volunteer extra time outside of my work schedule, but this is my livelihood. For others, giving time and talent to the church is in addition to a full time job as an employee or a parent/spouse, or both.             In other words, church is not the only place people give their time and talent, and as church leaders we must do better celebrating the folks who do give their time and talents to church.             I’ve also had to rethink how I think of “church” when we think about how people give time and talents

            Today I’m wondering about a balance between two mindsets: “If we build it, they will come” and “if they come, we will build it.” In the first mindset, people build their ultimate field of dreams. In a church, this means putting together a program or hiring a staff person to put together a ministry. It looks like trusting the budget to hold and trusting that whatever you create, it will draw people to it. In the second mindset, people wait until there are definitely people who even want that kind of program. Once you know there are people interested, you can start building something around them. In the second mindset, building something without vested interest opens a church up to wasting time, talents, and treasures – all three important commodities in ministry.             There’s nothing inherently wrong (or right for that matter) with either mindset. Having been in ministry for more than ten years and involved in the life of a church for more than 30 years, I see the

                It has been an overwhelming couple of months. Between a death in the family, work-related stuff, and some other things going on personally…suffice to say, the blog has not been a priority. Now I’m trying to get back into some good writing habits and here we are! Welcome back!             My family has been going my grandparent’s house following my grandmother’s passing. It’s an overwhelming task. As we go through things I’m stuck over and over again by the stories. Where did this doll come from? What’s the story behind these pins? Where did she get this necklace from? How can there POSSIBLY be another box of pictures?!?! We’re retelling some old family favorites and learning new stories. We learned my grandmother was a sucker for pearls. We also found poetry written by my great-great-grandfather to my great-great-grandmother, which is super sweet. It’s nice to know my love of words comes from both sides of the family!             The sorting process has me thinking abou