Know Thy Congregation

Supervised Ministry Class has been driving me a bit crazy. Mostly because it seems like we are being taught in a manner that suggests that there is a "one size fits all" approach to ministry. So much for 10,ooo Doors my Methodist friends. : /

And this has been frustrating me a lot lately, especially since I don't particularly see how my call to bi-vocational ministry fits into the UMC process. I have been told repeatedly to either lie about my call or to just nix one part of it, but I feel that both approaches are unfaithful to God, thus I won't consider either of those suggestions (demands?) as viable options.

Donna put it well tonight when she said that it isn't that I don't fit into the box of ministry, but the ministry does not fit me. There truly is a difference. I need to know myself well enough and be firm enough in my call (which requires lots of prayer, guidance, and wisdom) in order to articulate the movement of God in my life.

I have also been perplexed by the generalizations made in Supervised Ministry class that seem to tell people "this is how local church ministry will be". I'm not really sure which local churches they are talking about, because the statements being made are not ones that resemble any of the churches I have served. We need to know our congregations well enough to know if the generalizations fit.

More over, we need to know our congregations in order to preach what is needed to bless people. If I don't know that the man in the second pew is going through a divorce, then I could slip up and say something that will harm him instead of bless him, especially if I am blocking the movement of the Spirit in any way.

Along with supervised ministry, ethics has been a bit of a challenge, especially since one of my classmates always pulls the "but what about pastoral confidentiality" card. Friends, I believe very little in confidentiality in the church, yet I still plan to abide by it. But let us remember that confidentiality was not a mark of the early church. People knew each other's most intimate stories. The church is not a place to keep secrets, but to expose our wounds to a community who cares about us in order to be blessed and healed. It is only out of our individualistic and therapy-centered culture that the idea of confidentiality has emerged.

Looking back at my own life, I can tell you that the times I have been hurt the most are when people made comments that were uncaring about situations in my life that I was struggling with, but had never told them about. Because I had kept secrets from my community they were not able to care for me, either in their words or actions. And the times I have hurt others the most were when I did not know to watch my words or speak words of life into their pain, because I didn't know that what I was speaking on was a struggle for them.

We are afraid to burden others with our troubles or to let others into the most intimate parts of our lives. It is sort of like one of my brothers not wanting to call my parents when he went to the hospital this weekend, because he didn't want to wake them up or worry them. How are we to bear each others burdens, if we do not share with one another what is going on?

When, O God, will we start to reveal ourselves to the community of the Church so the Body can care for each other the way You desired?