Serving in local church ministry is one of my deepest joys in life. It鈥檚 also one of my deepest heartaches.

I think anyone who works with people in any personal way knows the deep joy and deep heartache that comes from knowing the stories of those people, and having your own story interact with theirs.

And yet, people are given to us pastors to love, to guide, to listen to, to challenge, and to remind them (and ourselves) that God is always inviting us into something deeper, something next. Our work is to cultivate the ability to pay attention, and to respond accordingly.

Pastoral work is hard. It鈥檚 painful. But the beauty of this work has begun to seep into my bones, and mark me in ways I鈥檓 sure I鈥檓 not yet fully aware of.

This work still takes much out of me, which is why I鈥檝e had to learn the hard way so often to take care of myself, and limit myself, as I live into this strange and wonderful vocation.

As I continue to grow and learn and make mistakes as a pastor, here鈥檚 a few things I’m learning that are saving my life. If you鈥檙e in pastoral ministry, or if you鈥檙e thinking about doing this work, I hope this helps.

Ten Thoughts on Sustainable Pastoral Ministry, from a Novice

1) God made you with limits, and your invitation is to honor those limits, whether they are physical, emotional, or family-based. To live out of your limitations is to honor how God created you.

2) Developing a regular rhythm of Sabbath (weekly for my family) will save your life. Sabbath isn鈥檛 about keeping rules, but acknowledging limits, and trusting that as you deliberately take time to be unproductive, God will continue to do the work that only God can do to make your life and ministry fruitful and productive.

鈥淭o live out of your limitations is to honor how God created you.鈥�

3) Your kids will only get one childhood, your spouse will only have one marriage with you. Arranging your life so that these relationships will thrive is what your ministry faithfulness needs to come out of, not be in spite of.

4) You are worth knowing, you are worth taking care of yourself, you are worth asking for the help that you need, because you are made in the image of God. You are worthy of love and belonging.

5) When you begin to live into these sorts of ideas, there will be people around you that might feel threatened, because they don鈥檛 live this way. Tread carefully, but trust that sometimes people need to have far less influence in your life than they do. God will always bring the people into your life that you will need to help you get to the next phase of what God is inviting you into.

6) You cannot do this work alone. You simply cannot. You need friends who will love you, who will listen and care, but who will tell you the truth. You need guides and elders who will give you relationship, who will mentor you and give you appropriate feedback. You need coaches and therapists and spiritual directors who will help you with your work, help you with your emotions and story-work, and who will continually invite you to consider where God is in the middle of your life. Building into these relationships in your life will help set the foundation by which you can begin to thrive.

7) There will always be people who don鈥檛 like you. There’s nothing you can do to avoid that. It鈥檚 up to you to determine how best to respond to these folks. You can ignore them. You can defend yourself against them. You can get in the mud and wrestle with them. You can passive-aggressively needle them. I鈥檝e done all of these things, and I鈥檓 never better off for having done them.

I鈥檝e learned from Bren猫 Brown that it鈥檚 good to hear from and learn from folks who are critical of you, but it鈥檚 not helpful for you to give everyone equal weight in your life with their words and ideas. If the critic isn鈥檛 in the arena with you, working to birth the thing you鈥檙e working to birth, their words don鈥檛 count as much. They may FEEL strongly, but if they’re not committed to the same dreams, the same goals, and the same future as you and your partners are committed to, then be kind, but pay little attention. Ask, 鈥淲hat is there in this for me to learn?鈥� and then continue doing your work.

8) Take your own spiritual formation as a child of God more seriously than you do anything else in your life and leadership. You are only as good as your deep connection to God. Your own growth, your own health, and your own formation will directly correlate to how you lead others into spiritual growth and health.

9) You are not simply growing an organization, you are creating the conditions where the lives of those whom God has entrusted to your care can begin to grow and change. Spiritual growth is a funny thing. It鈥檚 difficult to pin down. How does it work? How do we do it? Sometimes, I have no idea. Most of the time, I know it has to do with intention, quiet, solitude, silence, service, generosity, hospitality, study, prayer, and healthy relationships.

Take one thing at a time. This will take years, but do it anyway. You, and those around you, will be grateful for decades, even though most will never know all the work you鈥檝e put into becoming a healthier, more spiritually mature person.

10) In your pastoral work, it鈥檚 best to see yourself as a farmer. Of course, what I mean by this is a small-scale farmer growing a diversified crop plan, using mostly organic methods. These kinds of farmers know that they don鈥檛 grow anything, they only create the conditions whereby the seeds they put in the dirt can begin to grow.

Good farmers know they don鈥檛 grow melons or tomatoes, or raise pigs or chickens. Good farmers know they grow soil. They know the health of everything they do is directly connected to the health of the soil they鈥檙e working with. If the soil isn鈥檛 healthy, good farmers know that the fruit they harvest (if any) won鈥檛 be healthy either. Good farmers are dirt farmers.

And over time, while making daily investment into the care of their dirt, they plant seeds in the ground that will eventually begin to sprout. And as they care for these fledgling seedlings, they know that one day, months away, they will reap a harvest this is grace upon grace upon grace.

Pastors are farmers. We put the mess of life into the ground, believing that the impossible can happen. That the Maker will, through Mystery and Grace, take that mess and make it a rich compost, teeming with life and goodness that will, one day, produce so much life beyond itself.

Pastoral work is a mystery. Over time, as you add up all the meetings, the study, the prayer, the sermons, the leadership, the leading change, the invitations, the money management, the administration, the people鈥攕o many disparate things鈥攐ver time, as you do this work faithfully, God will begin to help this work take root in the soil all around you, in ways you couldn’t have planned for or expected. This work will certainly change lives. Your own life will change the most.

Peace to you on this journey toward a fuller spiritual transformation that will lead to a more sane and robust life in ministry.

May it be so.

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We hear in David鈥檚 words a reminder of the tension-holding and bridge-building that is so core to 天美视频鈥檚 mission. However, that does not mean negating or silencing the deep expressions of grief and anger that confront systemic harm. On Monday, we鈥檒l share an essay from Assistant Instructor Jennifer Fernandez about a theological frame for women鈥檚 anger鈥攁nd the validity and necessity of that anger.

It鈥檚 been a gray and rainy autumn thus far here in Northern Michigan. The cloud coverage has been pretty dark and oppressive. Feels like a Pacific Northwest winter, for sure.

It鈥檚 also been a traumatic time in our common, political life. No matter how you see things, no matter who you listen to, or who you believe, I think it鈥檚 pretty certain that the past few weeks have only further entrenched you within your ideological camp. It鈥檚 been pretty predictable who will take which sides. It has been for sometime now.

If you get your news from Fox, Breitbart, and the rest, you support Kavanaugh, to some extent. If you get your news from CNN, MSNBC, The Times, or the Post, you support Dr. Ford.

My guess is very few people were able, or willing, to cross the ideological lines and, with empathy, put themselves in the shoes of the other camp. We鈥檙e pretty terrible at that sort of empathic activity these days in our culture.

To be sure, I have strong opinions on Dr. Ford, Judge Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Diane Feinstein, and the rest.

I think women are to be believed, I think due process is important, and I think what has unfolded over the past few weeks is directly correlated to the refusal to give Merrick Garland a hearing a couple years ago, which was in retaliation for Obama鈥檚 progressive executive orders, which were a direct result of a GOP-controlled Congress who refused to work with him, which happened because Obama won the election in 2008, which was a direct response to a Bush Administration that lost all ability to govern, which was a direct response to entering into two misguided wars, which was a direct response to 9/11, which was a direct response to the U.S. being irresponsible with our foreign policy, which was a…you get the idea.

Ideologically motivated tribalism within the modern political machine is a ruthless, soul-crushing space to stay in too long.

I prefer to fish with people who see the world differently than I do. To build relationships. To find something that we both have in common. So that鈥檚 what I did a couple weeks ago: I stepped into the river for the morning鈥攖he famed Au Sable, that runs through and in and around my part of Northern Michigan.

You can have important and productive conversations with people you disagree with if you鈥檙e willing to find common ground on things that you both love. My guide was younger than me, and surely more ideologically conservative than I am. But we went to the river. We shared an experience. We both loved something together.

鈥淵ou can have important and productive conversations with people you disagree with if you鈥檙e willing to find common ground on things that you both love.鈥�

When you choose to find something you love that someone else loves, who you normally wouldn鈥檛 spend time with, then you have a place to start. If fishing isn鈥檛 your thing, maybe cooking is. Or fan fiction. Running. Road trips. Baseball. Knitting. Poetry. Hiking. Or even the grandkids.

More and more I鈥檓 convinced that so much of our political divide is baby-boomer parents experiencing a prolonged and delayed adolescent differentiation from their young-adult children (20-40 somethings). This certainly doesn鈥檛 account for the entire divide, but I think it explains a lot.

To my progressive friends, especially on the coasts: you are likely becoming more ideologically fundamentalist than you realize. Your insistence on purity within your ranks is the broader definition of fundamentalism. And it鈥檚 really destructive. I think you should try something different to engage people who see the world differently than you do. Very few people will change their minds because you yelled at them, or shamed them.

Love changes minds. Empathy moves hearts. Faith can move mountains, but you gotta start somewhere.

To my conservative friends, especially in the middle of our country. I don鈥檛 think you realize the damage that鈥檚 been caused by the people you鈥檝e allowed to carry your namesake. It鈥檚 too easy to put on your blinders and only listen to the opinion folks on Fox (yes, Tucker and the rest are not journalists鈥攖hey鈥檙e opinion/performance personalities).

Take a trip to New York, or Seattle, or Portland. Rub shoulders with the locals. Better yet, go with your young adult children, and do all that you can to see the world through their eyes, especially if you don鈥檛 see eye-to-eye with them politically.

Things are bad for many of us right now. I鈥檓 afraid for what the future holds. I鈥檓 afraid for my friends who are female, people of color, and LGBTQ the most.

I鈥檓 concerned that if we don鈥檛 stop reading our preferred news sources, and getting all of our information about the 鈥渙ther side鈥� from opinion folks, or our crazy uncles on Facebook, then we鈥檙e never going to get anywhere new. We have to be outraged enough to put down our devices, leave the comfort of our communities, and spend time with people we would rather not spend time with.

If you鈥檙e progressive, and you don鈥檛 really know how to have conversations with people who live in the 鈥渇ly-over鈥� states, . Let鈥檚 be creative on how we can help each other.

If you鈥檙e conservative, and your opinions about liberals are primarily formed by social media and Fox news, reach out to me, and I can put you in touch with some of the most thoughtful, kind, and godly people I know, who happen to identify as liberals.

Let鈥檚 stop letting our opinions of each other be formed primarily by the worst that the other side presents. It doesn鈥檛 have to be this way, but we have to choose a different path if we鈥檙e going to get anywhere new.

We鈥檙e better than this. We need to be better than this. We CAN be, if we have the courage to move to a different place, and move toward the people we鈥檝e come to loathe the most.

May God give us the courage to step into the hard places.
May God give us the wisdom to engage with the people we like the least, with kindness.
May God give us the ability to discern when to disengage.
May God give us the strength to speak truth to bullshit.
May God grant us the ability to love people who assume the worst about us.
May God go before us, come behind us, and be to our left, and to our right.

And may we hear the invitation of God鈥檚 Spirit to head to the river, more than we currently do, and to respond accordingly.

May God鈥檚 Spirit be yours, forevermore. Amen.

The post Step Into the River: Love That Crosses Barriers appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.

How would you describe your vocation?

I’m a Husband to Wendy and Father to Josiah and Jonah. Since 2014 I’ve served as Lead Pastor of Markey Church in Northern Michigan. I express my vocation primarily through inviting people in my community to wake up to what God is inviting them to do next with their lives, moment by moment, day by day. Practically, that means I oversee a ministry, comprised of weekly worship gatherings, programs, and lay leaders, that helps people from all walks of life in our community develop a connection to God and others by intentionally pursuing both a deeper intimacy with God and healthy relationships with others. I lead, I teach, I train, I communicate, I write, I administrate, and I model, to the best of my ability, the pursuit of health in my connection to God and others. I love what I get to do with my time.

How has your story led to your vocation?

Since I was 17-years-old I knew I wanted to be a pastor. Through my college years, I pursued schooling and experience in youth ministry, and then after college, sensed that I needed to become better equipped to lead and love people pastorally. My wife and I moved to Seattle in 2006 so that I could enroll at Mars Hill Graduate School in pursuit of my M.Div. Having spent my entire life in the Church, serving on several church staffs, and being a part of both large and small churches, I’ve come to see so many things that the local church does that get in the way of people waking up to the movement of God in their lives. I do all that I can vocationally to help people know that God is for them, that Jesus loves them, and that being part of a local church, one that invites them into transformation, can make sense with their lives.

How has your work been informed by your training at 天美视频?

I rely on my training from 天美视频 every single day. Knowing that I can only take people as far as I’ve been willing to go in my own journey has been the framework I’ve used over and over as I lead, pastor, teach, mentor, and counsel. I don’t have a clue how pastors lead churches faithfully without knowing themselves, their story, how they relate to and impact others, and being fluent in the dark places of their lives. It’s a huge reason why I see so many younger pastors crash and burn after only a few years. They know “how” to be a pastor, but they were never invited to consider how to “be” a pastor.

What breaks your heart and how is your work informed by that kind of shattering?

When people over and over don’t say “yes” to what God is inviting them into next. It’s the most gut wrenching thing for me to witness. I can often see how an acknowledgement of pain, or an embrace of loss could be utterly transformative for someone, and yet they continue on in their life believing that if they simply ignore the pain or stuff the loss, then they won’t have to deal with it ever again. And then all hell breaks loose, for them and those around them. I’ve had to learn to practice setting people into the hands of God, trusting that the journey they are on will continue to intersect with the invitation of the Spirit in their lives.

What are you doing when you feel most alive?

I love watching people take ideas of about faith, and begin to put them into practice in their own lives. Ideas are neat, but practices are sustaining. For instance, there’s a HUGE difference between reading the text that says, “rejoice in the Lord always”, and then taking the time to write out “100 things that you are thankful for.” That’s the difference between knowing we should “rejoice” and practicing the rejoicing. The practice itself can revolutionize how you see the world. Gratitude as a practice is a fear and cynicism killer. I feel most alive when I can help people put their faith into practice, when I’m playing on the trampoline with my boys, or when I’m eating really good food.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “Resilience”?

My work is so often done in public, and I’ve learned over the past several years, being the pastor up front most weekends, that when I work in public there’s no shortage of opinions that folks have of me and my work. To be a pastor is to endure constant criticism. To be a pastor leading change in a local church is to endure sabotage. Resilience to me is the key attribute of a faithful pastor, an attribute that is often overlooked in pastoral training. When I’ve received hate mail, anonymous letters, snide remarks, or been the recipient of sever politicking or sabotage, over and over I’ve come back to the point where I realize that the behavior of others hurts me. Words hurt, actions hurt. When people walk away from my church, it hurts. To be a pastor leading change in a sustainable way has meant that I’ve needed to learn to acknowledge my pain, feel my pain, let it wash over me, work with it and through it, grieve it properly, and then rinse and repeat. Pastoral work is painful, and developing deep muscles of resiliency is the only way I’ve been able to stay in it.

What sustains you vocationally?

A few things: 1) Regular time off with my family, which includes lots of play time with my boys. 2) Regular time to connect with Wendy, just the two of us. 3) Being a part of a couple groups of pastors that meet regularly. One is a monthly group of 6-8 through my denomination (American Baptist), and the other is a cohort I’m part of through the , where I meet quarterly for spiritual retreats with a group of 70 ministry leaders. 4) Regularly getting out of town 鈥� I live in a very rural area, so I tend to work off site one day a week on sermon prep and other projects. This typically takes me about an hour away, to the closest Starbucks in my area. 5) Seeing my therapist regularly, seeing a spiritual director pretty regularly, connecting with good friends who live elsewhere every couple months, going on long walks several times a week, and overall self-care. Also, really good food.

What are your hopes, dreams, desires as they relate to your vocational path?

I’m a dreamer, so there’s always so much I’d like to be doing that I’m not yet ready to do. I see some significant need among younger pastors (under 40 years old) serving their first church as the Lead or Senior Pastor, and the rate of turnover and burnout. Frankly, it’s really troubling to me. Established churches that need to change eat young pastors for breakfast. Seriously. I want to help younger pastors create a life where the ministry they are engaged in is sustainable over the long haul. Faithfulness, values-based living, rhythms and practices 鈥� all of these are SO IMPORTANT for people like me to establish early on in ministry, and I don’t see many folks helping young pastoral leaders do this well. Because of my own story, and my own struggle, I’d like to help through writing, podcasting, coaching, and relationships. It’s a HUGE need in the church right now.

Want to hear more from David Rice? Be sure to attend Symposia on October 7, 2017 to hear his presentation, The Resilient Pastor: Leading Change in the Traditional Church by Embracing Pain & Loss.

The post Alumni Spotlight: David W. Rice appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.