God
The weapons of our Warfare part 4…Kindness
The Many Threads At the Vicarage
I had this thought when I started “Notes From the Vicarage” that somehow we as a family were going to come to this year with all its craziness, all its transition, all its busyness and hullabaloo and still somehow we were going to be able to lay down all of that in an orderly and succinct fashion. I pictured our story at the Vicarage laying down in nice neat lines or perhaps even a beautifully woven tapestry, the design of which would be easily discernible by even the untrained eye. It hasn’t worked out like that at all
I am always talking to Pastor Dan (my lead pastor) about the prophetic threads flowing through our church. I somehow thought that “Notes From the Vicarage” would help me to see the order in the chaos of all the threads. I do believe it will still do that for me. Right now, though, all it is doing is showing me more threads. those threads have always been there, I just wasn’t seeing them before I started writing.
There are: threads of ministry, threads of personal health, threads of artistry, threads of aging, threads of family and family change, threads of mid life, threads of friendships growing and waning, threads of goodness, threads of evil and so many others which I have barely even touched on yet. This blog has helped me to see all those threads from new angles. I still cannot see that pattern they make, maybe I never will, maybe I am not supposed to.
I was talking to God about all these threads the other day and asking Him to help me understand them. I was striving so hard for understanding and then God came and told me to stop looking at the threads and to start looking at Him.
He said, “Son the nature of prophecy is not in looking at the world and trying to understand it. The nature of prophecy is in looking at God and allowing Him to explain what He wants you to know of the world.”
I still see all those threads. I’m just not looking at them as much anymore. At least that is what I am working at.
WHAT’S ITINERATION?
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.
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
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
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.
Notes From the Vicarage 