An Experiment in Ministry
For a long time, the basic style of ministry was about the same. The pastor is hired by the church, moves the family into town, works throughout the week with a day off (maybe) and on it goes. That is what I have done for most of my ministry. But this week we have begun a new chapter and we are experimenting with a new style of ministry. For family reasons, we needed to move to specific area that just happened to be two hours away from the church. This means a few things. One is that my family will no longer be a part of the church where I pastor and will have to find a new church in the community where we live. The advantage to this is that for the first time in twelve years, my wife and kids will actually have a pastor. I was not prepared to commute two hours each way every day and so in cooperation with my churches, we have set up a new schedule. Instead of working five days during the week, I am compressing my work week into three long days (Tuesday to Thursday), with me staying two nights in the community where I pastor. I also come up on Sunday mornings for worship services (hard to get out of that one). Yes that means I am away from my family for a couple of nights. But it also means instead of one day off to be with my family, I now have 3.5 days off. I believe this schedule will allow me both to be a better pastor and a better husband/dad. This was my first week and so far, so good. I will keep you updated as we continue with this experiment in ministry.
That’s quite the arrangement. Would be interested in hearing how this pans out pragmatically.