My personal schedule shifted recently and I took on more meeting ministry opportunities. Up until last April,Tuesday through Friday was probably my most busy part of the week. I did a lot of personal meetings, a staff meeting and at least one prayer service on those days.
But in the Spring God changed things up. The church needed another set of hands in our boys Doing Life Together Group. Then in August it became apparent that I was going to be taking over a new adult Doing Life Together group along with a return to worship ministry.
Now Sunday to Tuesday is my gauntlet time. Sunday morning generally starts around 4:30 A.M. This week I did morning service and an afternoon funeral (last week it was an afternoon Chili cook off). Mondays are Bible study, devotional video and worship set. Tuesdays are devotional video, staff meeting and Boys Doing Life Together group. By Wednesday I am ready to drop.
One of the things I regularly do is go through my life and evaluate how my life is going. Is it the life God desires for me? Is it the life I want to live? Am I living to my potential? What am I doing that I shouldn’t be doing? What am I not doing that I should be doing?
One of the things I discovered in my latest evaluation, is that I want to get back to writing again. And I want to get back to artistic expression.
We started Royal Rangers (our churches boy’s group) again last week. The first merit we are working on is the art merit. Maybe that is what is driving me back to the desire to create. I want to get back to story. I want to get back to drawing. I want to back to making something that draws on imagination.
Then again, maybe it is something in my current work of pastoring that is driving me to this. I was in a conversation last Friday with someone as I attended a local worship conference. As we spoke I realized just how complex the work of pastoring has been lately. I have many questions about what comes next in the work.
I spent the weekend in deep prayer. As I was praying in the midnight hour on Saturday evening some words and a picture came to mind.
I am not sure what these things mean exactly, but I know they are my brain trying to process some very intricate data. So maybe that is what is driving me back to writing again. I just know that whatever it is, my desire to write again is overwhelming. I need to do it.
Ministry has shifted again. I think this shift is at least for the winter. About a month and a half ago I moved my day off from Monday to Wednesday. Mondays became a morning Doing Life Together Group (our church’s small group Bible studies) and a worship devotional session at TWR House Of Prayer.
The schedule is now:Sunday church, Monday teaching and service work, Tuesday staff meeting pastoral meetings and Royal Rangers and somewhere in this I have to make sure my sermon is put together and sent off to the admin staff for power pointing.
The last several weeks I have been working on Wednesdays as I transitioned out of other ministry responsibilities. Last night was my first Ranger meeting and today is my first Wednesday Sabbath for real.
I got up this morning after the last three days of ministry and realized just how much I needed a sabbath.
I have known for many years how important sabbath is for the work of ministry. That said, it has been something I have pushed off many times for the necessity of the work. This new schedule is not going to permit that. I toyed with the idea for a while of keeping a couple of work items in the mix for Wednesdays. The way I feel today shows me just how much I will need this.
“Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.[d]4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. “
As the Vicarage has filled up one of the things that has become clear is how differently the various Lillies all think and practice this thing called life. The differences show up in big and little ways. For instance my son and his wife have taken over washing the dishes. I never considered that the three pockets on the edge of our strainer are for presorting the silverware into spoons, forks and knives. When I do the dishes the silver just falls into whatever pocket I happen to chuck it. Joe and Kristine just seemed to understand that the pockets were there to help with the organization.
MIND BLOWN…
My sister and I are headed out for vacation on Saturday to a Missionary retreat called Eden Ridge.
The kids are taking care of things when I go. My daughter Amanda has the incredible thought processes of a lead administrator. She called the whole Lillie/Franklin team together for a planning session last Monday night so that schedules and duties are all marked out before my departure.
It is so powerful to see this multiplicity of minds working in my family. It is also beginning in the church….AS WE DISCOVER OUR GIFTS WE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD.
Our church at Cornerstone is organized into what we call DLT groups. Each group has five purposes.
To study the Bible together
To pray together
To break bread together
To build Authentic Transparent Vulnerable relationship together
To use these methods to outreach our community
I have just started a new DLT group. It is composed mostly of octogenarians in the church. We call ourselves “The Saints of Fire and Valor.” Our outreach is to the Senior Center in our town. We are joining in with another group, “The Warriors of Fire”.
Here are some photos from our first outreach as a group.
I WISH I COULD READ THE MINDS BEHIND THESE EXPRESSIONS.
Four days ago Brenda was getting ready to preach her final message before vacation, was still packing her bags for her trip to the United States and was still getting her house ready for her house sitter.
Today Amanda drove me to the office, as my car is in the shop, Joe has started his new job at Gardner Middle School and Brenda, Sevy and Kristine are at the Vicarage with Gramma. When I left them Sevy was playing trucks in the front room and Mom, Brenda and Kristine were finishing their morning coffees.
From quiet house to full house. Four days goes fast and four days can bring great change.
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)
I believe in the Second Coming, not as Yeats did, but I believe. I feel sometimes we are close. I feel the collective despair and fear and anger of the world held in a basin for years is ready to be poured out. The words of Revelation 1:7 echo in my mind even now.
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b] and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c] So shall it be! Amen.
AND YET
I have this hope that God is always good and that He has a good plan for saving those who want that salvation.
I have this hope that God’s goodness dwells in people who choose it, and in these days is still expressed in love that overcomes despair and fear and anger.
I have this hope that where people of faith dwell the darkness that threatens to engulf the world will be held back.
I have this hope that this little town where I live is one of those places where love and faith will grow and the darkness will be swallowed up in the light of people who will work together to bring about the good.
I cannot stop what is coming on the world, but I can help make a boundary across which that darkness cannot cross for a time.
Joe, Kristine and Sevy are on their way to visit Joe’s Mom and her husband and parents in South Carolina for the week. They will be enjoying a week of southern hospitality and warm beaches.
Amanda is on vacation this week and is taking some time at a local priory to center her heart for the season ahead.
That leaves me and Mom, the cat and two dogs to get the house ready for next week when we will be full to the brim plus one. Amanda returns on Friday. Joe and his family return on Sunday and Brenda arrives on Monday.
So tonight Melanie and the girls are coming to help me get Brenda’s room ready for habitation .
I love my little town in the North Central part of Massachusetts. These people are my tribe! We are greatly varied in the way we view the world, but we hold our region in common and the land ties us together in deeper ways than most of us realize.
TRINITY THE TIE-DYE ARTIST
The first line of our church’s mission statement is ‘WHILE DOING LIFE TOGETHER”.
DOING LIFE TOGETHER is how we are beginning to see the world. We are in this TOGETHER. We are better TOGETHER. It is WHILE DOING LIFE TOGETHER that we now share the LOVE OF CHRIST.
AMANDA AND PAM, TIE-DYE ARTISTS
I am proud of our little town. Over the last few years I have sensed a growing spirit of cooperation. Oh, we still have our divisions, but I see a growing number of people willing to reach across the chasms of thought to join together in making our region a stronger community. I see it in the work of the HEAL COLLABORATIVE. I see it in the dedication of the Winchendon Community Park. I see it in the Taste of Winchendon Fairs and the Parks and Rec events throughout this summer. I see it in the library’s One Book One Community conversations.
TRINITY STARTS MY SHIRT
AND I saw it today in the town’s first ever WINCHENSTOCK. A tip of the town’s hat to the 1970’s and a fundraiser for our local COMMUNITY ACTION COMMITTEE. My daughter, Amanda, and her team ran the tie-dye booth. I was afraid to tie-dye my own shirt, so Trinity did the art work for me. I can’t wait to wear this in the pulpit in honor of what is building in our little community!
MY SHIRT WILL NEED TO SET FOR NINE HOURS AT LEAST AND THEN BE RINSED OUT THOUROUGHLY AND DRIED
The other day I wrote a post here on “Notes” entitled “THE LINGER”. It was about the importance of using my prayer space to reenergize from the rigors of ministry and from the burdens I felt in recent schedule changes
I asked two questions in that post. The first question was… DOES CHANGE MAKE YOU TIRED OR DOES IT ENERGIZE YOU?
And the second question was….HOW MUCH OF YOUR PRAYER TIME IS SPENT LISTENING?
I got three great responses from that post which I want to share with you and then follow up with how I intentionally sought the linger.
Jane said…”I appreciate your reframed question from yesterday. I was wrestling with a response as I am one of those who is wired for change .. I love the flow and adventure of it. As to your question from today … my version is .. “how much of your/my time is spent listening?” (to myself, to others, to the world large and small, to God) .. a reminder I can need to receive rather than express. Thanks!”
Basia said… “Sometimes it’s hard just to be in the presence of God. for me the best times are during bouts of insomnia.“
Brenda said…I think change is exciting and challenging, therefore it is always emotionally exhausting. If you are excited for the new direction or adventure, there is still a crap ton of work to do to prepare the way so to speak…and if your new direction or adventure is a surprise to you that can feel like a heavy load to carry. It doesn’t mean you don’t understand or even like the change it is just….you have to work through it all. Change is good. Change helps us grow…growth most often is uncomfortable.
Change and growth are uncomfortable. I find they also take energy and so I need an intentional way of reenergizing. I think everyone reenergizes differently.
Then there are those like me who reenergize by prayer and spiritual focus. Normally I can just sit on my front porch and slip easily into the prayer space. This week it has been harder. I find my mind continually wandering back to the worries of the day.
It is for this reason I have set aside some time this week to go to the worship room. The worship room is a ministry dedicated to 5days a week of prayer 4 hours each day.
I was able to set aside two one hour slots this week to just go and sit and listen to the voice of God. The change of location and method was enough to jar me out of my distraction and get me into the presence of God.
Notes From the Vicarage 