How many hours a week should ministers be working? What should they do in those hours? What responsibilities should take precedence in pastoral ministry?
These questions were forced on me in a most unwelcome way over the summer. I came down with a nasty bout of mycoplasma pneumonia. Hospital, antibiotics, coughing up blood - the whole shebang!
My G.P. gave me the serious talk: 'You won't be at full strength for a while. You've probably got a couple of months where you need to cut back. If you do, say- 48 hours a week, you need to think about how you can do 28.'
Someone very wisely told me I needed to draw up a list of what I would keep doing and what I would drop. In drawing up that list, here are some lessons learnt:
1. The first thing I dropped was my blog and blogging here! Twitter, Facebook and Sydney Anglicans were shut down and life went on!
2. People gave different advice on preaching - get guest preachers in, put student ministers up more, preach old sermons. One of the wardens said to me though: 'You are here to preach. Drop other things. Get other people to pick things up. But keep preaching as a priority.' My warden was right. If I easily dropped preaching that would teach people that word ministry wasn't the priority.
3. I took Mondays off as well as my regular Saturday. A Saturday off with 4 young kids is wonderful but rarely relaxing.
4. There was some administration that needlessly consumed a lot of my time - unfortunately, with so much of it in my head, it couldn't easily be off-loaded.
5. Dropping some things has meant other people have taken them up. If only I'd trained them in these ministries before, rather than letting my 'professional ministry' get in their way!
The list isn't finished yet. It hasn't been a simple thing for me to decide what should be dropped. The list would look different at different churches. So for instance, in a smaller church, I think the minister is much more significant for the welcoming and integration of newcomers.
What do you think? How many hours a week should ministers be working? What should they do in those hours? What responsibilities should take precedence in pastoral ministry?
Don't wait for sickness to answer these questions. Share your wisdom here.
P.S. My illness is short term and frustrating - I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know it doesn't compare with people facing serious long term illnesses. I wouldn't want to compete with the suffering that many have gone through. But my little brush with something worse than man-flu has been a helpful reminder of my mortality and frailty. The progress of the Gospel here doesn't depend on my strength. This came home to me on Christmas Eve. Its the biggest gig of the year for a small church like Barneys. I couldn't preach but I did pray - and with a sense of need I never had when I was strong.
