Leaving on Sabbatical scared the crap out of me. I knew we'd have great experiences, I knew our congregation would be cared for, but I wasn't sure what it would be like to be away from our congregation for 6 weeks. When I had my daughters, I was away from the office for 7 weeks, but I was still in worship. So it was interesting to experience being completely away from the worship life of our congregation.
Erik and I had some hopes and fears when we left for Sabbatical. We hoped folks in the congregation would be welcoming and helpful to the pastor who filled in for us, and my hopes were fulfilled. We feared that some people would see our Sabbatical as an excuse to take their own Sabbatical from worship, a fear that was probably well-founded. We hoped we would be missed, but we feared that we'd return to discover that our congregation didn't quite know what to do "while Mom and Dad were gone."
Leaving our congregation for a Sabbatical felt a little bit like the early days of leaving my children with a babysitter. Of course, I wanted my babies to be with someone wonderful who would care for them well. But at the same time, I didn't want the babysitter to be SO good that my children wouldn't miss me at all.
But over time, as a mother, I realized that the more caring people my children had in their life, the healthier and more confident they'd become. Sure, there have been babysitters who almost make my kids say, "Mom who?" but as I've become a more confident mom, I've become incredibly grateful for them. I don't want to be a helicopter parent (a hover-mother who is over-involved to the extent where her children can't function without her), so it's essential that my children spend time with other adults, and form deep connections to people other than their parents. They learn and grow when they spend time with other people who have different personalities, ideas, and experiences than we do. I will always be their mom, but I feel blessed that they're exposed to so many other people who contribute to their growth. Because in the end, what I want most for my children is for them to become compassionate, intelligent, grounded, confident, independent young women. Now, I've got many years before they'll be leaving the nest, but when they do, I want to feel like they'll be mostly self-sufficient, because we've given them what they've needed to grow up into mature, independent adults.
As a pastor, my calling isn't so different. The goal of parenting is to raise children into healthy, independent adults. A main goal of ministry is to help raise people into healthy, faithful, compassionate Christians. Sometimes, it's easy for pastors to become "helicopter parents" of the congregation, causing members to feel like they can't function without the pastor(s). I know I'm not going to work myself out of a job anytime soon, but I want to continue equipping the saints for ministry, so they realize that ministry is our calling, not just my calling.
The somewhat selfish part of me is a bit happy to say that we were missed while on Sabbatical. But the more selfless part of me is overjoyed to say that there are some wonderful people who carried on the ministry of our congregation in our absence. I may be a pastor, but we are all ministers. I look forward to continuing our ministry together, making disciples, sharing God's love, and serving those in need. Because none of us can do it alone. And it's much more fun to work together anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment