Seven resolutions for clergy
Ron Crawford offers up his advice for New Year's Resolutions for Ministers. What are yours?
Seven New Year's Resolutions for Ministers
By Ron Crawford in EthicsDaily.com
Resolve to better supervise others. It is part of a minister's work. In many ministry settings, this involves keeping up with a couple of part-time employees. While this surely involves keeping up with their performance, it also means keeping up with them: their experience, their ideas, their hopes and dreams for the church.
Time invested with church employees is some of the most productive time a minister will ever spend. This is especially true for pastors who supervise a staff of associate ministers. Outside of staff meetings, staff retreats and planning meetings, spend quality time with the ministers you supervise: think about 45 minutes a week as a standard. Spend the time learning about their area of ministry, affirming their work, holding them accountable for the goals they set, getting to know them and extending pastoral care to them.
. . .
Resolve to take time away
. . .
Resolve to say "no."
Read the rest of the article HERE
Peter, thanks for posting this. It's really good, simple, honest, and the better for being so. I've been thinking a lot about Christian formation recently and so notice that everything this wise Baptist says (including the great reminder to say 'no') keeps the professional clergy person open to and engaged in formation - her/his own and that of others.
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January 5, 2011 12:13 PM
I think a lot about resolutions and just wrote about this for my weekly newsletter.
Ordinarily, I make several resolutions for the new year. You know, the typical stuff: to lose the spare tire above my belt line; to be a better husband/ father/ pastor/ writer/ preacher/ teacher/ brother/ friend; to spend less and save more; to exercise more, eat and drink less.
But a funny thing happened on my way to making my resolutions this year: I decided to pray about it.
When I asked God, in prayer, what I should resolve, what I heard in response surprised me.
(Although it shouldn’t have surprised me, because it’s something I’ve heard God telling me many times over the years -- a consistent message.)
It’s this:
“Lighten up a little, will ya, John?”
How’s that for a New Year’s resolution -- to lighten up a little!?
It's not an excuse for hedonism, though: if you think of “lighten up” as “don’t take yourself -- your SELF -- so seriously” then it takes on a whole new meaning. It can lead to humility.
(True humility, as C.S. Lewis points out, is not “thinking less of yourself.”
True humility is “thinking of yourself less.”)
And isn’t that a major problem with most resolutions, whether we make them at New Year’s or Lent?
They tend to make us think about our selves -- our goals, our bodies, our habits, our, our, our...my, my, my... me, me, me…
But if we think of “lighten up,” as “don’t take yourself so danged seriously,” or “let go and let God,” that would take us away from that kind of self-centeredness toward God-centeredness.
So for this year: less resolution, more relying.
John Ohmer
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January 5, 2011 7:37 PM