Christianity

WHAT’S ITINERATION?

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It strikes me that I never explained why the Vicarage now has three ministers living in it. Perhaps some of you have asked the obvious question, “If Brenda J. Lillie is a missionary to The Netherlands why is she living at The Vicarage in the good Ole U.S. of A.?”

Brenda is a faith missionary. Which means she is a missionary who is responsible to raise her own funds from individuals and churches to help her do her work of missions. The process of gathering partners is called “itineration”.

In our denomination, missionaries serve in four year terms. That is three or four years on the field (depending on the stage of their work)and then 1 year back in the U.S. to meet with their partnering churches to raise funds for new missions projects, or to make up for money lost due to attrition (churches or individuals not being able to continue their commitments) and cost of living increase.

Brenda spent the last three years in Zaandam, North Holland, The Netherlands building Stagelife Theater in partnership with Icthus Church in that city.

Downtown Zaandam

Now she is home connecting with partners and forging new alliances to help her plant the next phase of the ministry which is The Bridge Artist’s community.

She has been home a month. If you have been following us you know it has been a busy time. She is currently in a season we are calling the “May gauntlet.”

May is the month in our denominations when many of our regions host their Network Conferences. A conference is like a combination church service-pep- rally and stockholder’s business meeting. Brenda is traveling to several conferences this month to connect with potential partners. At each conference she sets up a table, and ministers from that region are encouraged to stop by and see what she is doing. The hope is that those ministers will set up services with Brenda and then consider supporting her. Each conference is on Brenda’s dime. She pays for travel, lodging and set up cost, but the idea is you invest to reap a benefit.

Last week she preached in Worcester MA and then drove to the Appalachian Network Conference in West Virginia. This week she is in Syracuse, New York attending the New York District Conference.

She is also selling photos from her home on the farm in The Netherlands as a way to raise money for the project.

The Hardest Transition Of All

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We have mentioned how the Vicarage is going through a lot of transition. Brenda has come home from her mission in The Netherlands at the busiest season of the church year. She hit the ground running even as she was recovering from jetlag and set out to preaching on her first weekend back. that was a hard and a fast transition.

Her dog took two weeks to transition to our time zone. That was a hard transition. My two dogs and he still cannot be left alone in the same room. That has been a hard transition.

Amanda left the day before Brenda came back to take care of some children of a congregant. That sent Flerkin into a tail spin for a few days, a hard transition.

I am getting used to living in a house as the only man among three women. A hard transition.

But none of these things have compared to the transition my mom has been walking through. Her transition began long before Brenda came back. Over the last few years Mom has been slowly losing things to the demon of memory loss. She has lost the ability to drive. She has stepped away from the stove for the most part. She has given up sole ownership of the house and just recently she had to give up the ability to self medicate. she still holds onto her checkbook, but even that she is beginning to accept help with.

The changes in the Vicarage have been huge for all of us but none of us have faced more daunting changes than mom. We have all needed grace for our separate transitions but mom has needed a deeper grace than all of us. We all realize that we are just at the beginning of this journey, but we also know we do not travel it alone. We have each other and we have the God we serve.




J: What Being A Minister Means To Me

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One of the things I hope our little family experiment at the Vicarage reveals is what life is like for ministerial families. I hope we get to give you a glimpse behind the curtain to show you that we are just a real family with all the same struggles everyone else has. Being ministers does not exempt us in any way from the normal trials and tribulations of life. Being a minister doesn’t come with a magic “bless you stick” that makes our trials go away on Sundays.

Being ministers though does indicate that we have embraced a lifestyle that is a bit different from the one most people experience. Our lives as ministers are governed by a call from God through which every job, relationship and schedule gets run. That call often leads us into unique situations like the one above where I had to dress up in this costume and go on stage in front of 1100 teen-agers to help teach a Gospel message.

As ministers we live our lives (or at least are supposed to) by prayer and we walk through our lives by faith (or at least are supposed to). Pastors live in the prophetic realm and are called to listen for the internal spiritual witness of God. That witness, that call can lead us into some crazy, exciting even at times harrowing situations.

The title Prophet has been bandied around about me a lot lately. I am not really big into titles but I know God has been doing something in me for a long time that is definitely prophetic. I feel like this family blog is a part of that prophetic call and I am hoping over the course of the next year to acquaint you more with it. Maybe at the end of this time I will understand more about who I am made to be by God. Maybe at the end of this time you will have come away with a better understanding of ministers, prophets, their lives and maybe even a little bit more of an understanding of who God made you to be.

J: The Logistics Of Cattywampus

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Like my daughter Amanda I enjoy routine and schedule. Like my sister Brenda I enjoy routine and schedule. Here’s the thing all of us enjoy our own routines and our own schedules. That said, God is calling us to a time of blending our routines and schedules together.

I am not exactly sure why God is doing this, but I do know God never does anything without a purpose. He wastes nothing.

Today started at 2:39 a.m. for me. I woke up with a raging sore throat. I went downstairs to the kitchen and gargled with salt water as quietly as I could. Then I went back to my room and began the process of welcoming the day in prayer. This is a deviation from routine for me because normally I would begin my prayer time in the workroom. Now with Brenda sleeping one room away, and Snug being so sensitive to sound at the moment I wanted to keep it as quiet as possible until a decent hour. I have been practicing for the last few weeks starting prayer in my room.

Brenda and I had to be at Pastor Dan’s house for 7:45 a.m. , so by 6 a.m. I was walking and feeding dogs and feeding the cat and cleaning the litter box and going to the store for mom’s morning papers, cigarettes and scratch tickets.

Then it was off to Sturbridge for a prophetic conference and so Brenda could pick up the car she’s renting from the district office for the next month or so.

The conference was super good. Both Pastor Dan and I felt very affirmed in what is happening at Cornerstone Church. I feel like God is teaching me more and more about the gift he placed in me from the beginning.

Brenda meanwhile picked up her car and had to head home to practice her sermon for this weekend in Hyannis.

Pastor Dan and I pulled in to town after the conference around 3 p.m. . I ran home walked the dogs, and crashed for a nap as once again I was feeling a bit under the weather.

When I got up Brenda asked if we could go to the church to print off her sermon and so she could try it out on me. So at 8 p.m. we were at the church practice preaching. Hyannis is in for a treat.

After practice preaching we returned home to walk dogs and feed the cat and to dispense moms medication for the night.

The schedule right now feels a little cattywampus but you know I don’t think I would have it any other way. This is life and it’s life to the full. Sure, in the newness there is a lot to work out. There are some complicated logistics to working the schedule, our schedules together. This is a work in progress but it’s God’s work. It’s fun work. You won’t find me complaining because we get to do all this fantastic stuff of life and ministry together. There aren’t too many families that have such intricate and interesting opportunities.