Pandemic

Introverted Pastoring

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment
Person Walking on Pathway

The other day I wrote about SETTLING INTO A NEW ROUTINE. I wrote about how this time has birthed in me a new attention: towards prayer, towards writing, towards art and towards taking care of the Vicarage.

I didn’t write about how this “settling in” has affected the work of ministry. That was intentional. The effect this pandemic has had upon who I am as a minister and what I do as a minister is so profound I do not think I can fit it into one post. I thought it would be wrong to try and squeeze it in, as a line item, along with those other things.

I imagine most ministers have been doing a lot of work using Facebook and e-mail and phone calling. I certainly have. Just today I have started three new conversations on Facebook with men in my congregation.

I have also increased communication with folks who do not come to the church. One of my friends who I have been writing back and forth with summed up what I have been feeling beautifully.

She writes: “One aspect of these times that I’m enjoying is reclaiming my instincts and inclinations as an introvert. After all those years of being out there working at the edge of so many things, it feels comfortable and even familiar to pull back, be quiet (at least my mind and voice) .. and follow the lead of my body as it takes me to the garden, weeding, walking the dog, fixing food, etc.”

Brown Wooden Dock

I have been working as a minister in my town since 1991. Like my friend I feel like all these years I have been “working at the edge of so many things”. I don’t regret one bit of it. Pastoring has been a wonderful life and will continue to be as I move into the future. But I am so enjoying this radical new discovery which I think I have to call introverted pastoring.

I love and miss my church family. I may be shooting myself in the foot here, but since we have been praying for authenticity, transparency and vulnerability in our church for months here goes nothin’. What I do not miss is the parade of events that was the church before Covid-19. I am loving having one on one meetings via Zoom or Facebook Live, in which I can simply relate to people without the pressure of having to do business or plan an event. I am really loving having days-long and even weeks-long theological conversations by letter (or messenger) with congregants. I have loved grocery shopping for elderly people in the congregation. I have enjoyed having the time and energy to study the Bible without having to rush through in order to prepare for the rest of the week’s events.

While many of my extroverted congregants and colleagues descry the loss of community, I feel as though I have found a new level of community which is profound, deep and rich, because it is not based around large scale social events but around individual connections.

When we finally get to be back together, I am determined to change how I pastor, no matter what the cost, to reflect this new model of introverted pastoring. I do not know yet what all the changes will look like. I know it will involve saying yes on a permanent level to a more quiet lifestyle, but how that susses out, well, that is all part of the quiet adventure I am on.

DDITW…Well Ok This Actually Came Out Good!

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

Here is another episode of “Don’t Do It This Way” With Amanda Lillie. She calls it “Without a recipe”, but as one of her watchers I find myself often shouting at the screen, “No! Don’t do it!”

This time however the results were not that bad. We ate all the dip.

Tune in on Monday at 3P.M. Eastern time for the next DDITW or as Amanda calls it “Without a Recipe”.

DDITW With Amanda( Ice Cream Sundaes)

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

It is time for another episode of “Don’t Do It This Way” or as Amanda calls it “Without A Recipe”. This is one of the ways Amanda is keeping our congregation connected during the pandemic.

This was Amanda’s birthday addition. She made ice cream sundaes this week. While she was doing this, I was home making her cakes. I made her two favorite cakes (lemon and carrot) as a consolation for not being able to go to Pennsylvania (which was the plan pre-Covid-19).

The Time Things Take

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

I have slowed my life down dramatically over the course of the last six weeks. I feel like I am just hitting my stride. I know those two statements sound diametrically opposed. You may even be thinking that both of them cannot be true at the same time, but I am discovering they can. I am discovering both statements ARE becoming true of me at the same time.

I have slowed down and somehow I feel more effective than I have ever been before.

Customer Service eLearning & Onsite Training Customized Engaging ...

A friend and I had virtual coffee together the other day and he hit the nail on the head for me.

He said, ” I am learning to give things the time they actually take rather than trying to squeeze them into the time I have.”

THAT IS SO POWERFUL!

How many partnership practitioners does it take to change a ...

I think my new level of effectiveness comes from slowing down. In slowing down I am letting things take the time they take rather than trying to rush through them to get them done in the time I have. Rushing so that I can get a lot of things done poorly is not better than doing a few things well.

I have said to most of the people I have spoken with during this time, “As we walk into the future I don’t want to return to old habits. I want to build off of the things I have learned during this time.”

WHAT HABITS DO YOU WANT TO WALK WITH INTO THE FUTURE?

Without A Recipe For a Birthday

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

I am so proud of this lady. I would say girl but that is not what she is anymore. She has proven herself to be one of the most capable adults I know.

Today is Amanda’s birthday. If you want to know how old she is you are going to have to ask her. Because I try never to tell a lady’s age. I can be old school like that sometimes.

Amanda was supposed to be in Pennsylvania celebrating this week. Covid-19 has changed all that. It looks like none of us are going anywhere for quite a while. So instead of doing normal birthday things today like going out to eat or heading out for a movie, Amanda will be doing another episode of “Without A Recipe.”

Check in with her at 3 P.M. to wish her a happy birthday and to tell her how to make an ice cream Sundae.

Here she is making a dessert lasagna.


In the Midst

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

Last week our grocery store started limiting the number of people who could go in at one time. One in one out, is the new rule.

This week we were asked to start shopping in two week stints to limit the amount of exposure each of us have to the public, as cases of the Covid-19 mount across the state. I could feel the fear as I was shopping yesterday. One man yelled at me when I pulled down my face mask for a moment to defog my glasses.

In the midst of our world falling apart around us by bits and pieces, I have been “attending” an on-line retreat regarding the sorrows of Passion Week. Today our leader in the retreat wrote this:

“Where is our hope? Our hope is in a God who died publicly humiliated outside the walls of a minor city in a great empire. This God is not a God for winners, not a God who makes us great again. We believe in a God who throws the rich from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. Our God dies daily, alongside the poor, the outcast, the immigrant child, the fearful and victimized, the one who dies alone. Our hope is in a God who chooses humility, a God who bows deeply, who suffers with us, even unto death. A God who dies daily alongside those in this plague, who knows the fear of those who serve others in this pandemic, who knows the avoidance of those who would rather go back to sleep.” Almut Furchert

I am struck by the phrase, “Our hope is in a God who chooses humility, a God who bows deeply,”

When, besides the cross, in all of the worlds religions did a god choose humility? IN the cross God bowed low!!!!

For me this time has been a very humbling experience. I got sick at the beginning of the shut- in and my voice has not yet returned (I am thanking God that this sickness was not as serious as it could have been). I have not led worship in something like seven weeks. This has been one of my lamentations during this season. It felt like a loss ( not so much the loss of worship but of my voice), but God has showed me that this is the moment I have prayed for. In my inability, younger men have stepped to the plate and worship has gone on, and there is actually a liberation in that!

The whole church is being humbled as we approach this Easter weekend. We are being forced to do away with the pomp and circumstance which generally go with this season. We are being forced to return to the simplicity of the cross: no frills, no stirring music or acting, no lights or crowds, just a naked Savior hanging, dying on a cross. Perhaps in the midst of our world falling apart this will be one of the most powerful Easters the church has experienced in many years simply because we cannot make it about us or our attempts at personal kingdom building. It must be completely about Jesus.

God is changing me through this experience. He is moving me ,in the midst of it, into the new place He has been promising to being me. He is accomplishing His prophesied move in our church at Cornerstone and He is fulfilling His prophesied word in the church world- wide. The church is being humbled. As the crucifixion of Christ was God’s plan to bring about Christ’s Resurrection then, this crucifixion we are experiencing has a resurrection attached to it as well. Hold onto that.