Sounding Board: Letters to the Editor and Commentary

Faith leaders discuss taking time and leadership models

Rediscover delight!

The other day I heard about a man who traveled the world who said that life today was at a pace that leaves the soul behind. He specifically talked about flying and how he would get to his destination, but his soul would be in a previous city.

The interesting thing about this was that this man lived and traveled over 80 years ago! He wrote about a plane trip he took that today would take 18 hours, but took him two weeks with single-engine propeller planes. The pace of our life has increased since his time.

I was struck by his comment about his soul being left behind by the rapid pace of life, and thinking about our own times, I was struck again about the need for rest, the need for Sabbath, the need for soul time.

We live in a time when we are constantly available, constantly on, constantly going, and that is not sustainable for our souls. Our souls, our bodies, our minds, all parts of our very being need rest. 

I suspect that many reading these words identify with the need for rest, and yet some, perhaps, may also shake their head thinking, "How exactly am I supposed to get rest when my life is so busy?" Life is indeed busy today. I look at parents of children today and know that their expectations for their kids' activities are way greater than the expectations for me when I was a kid. People are working longer hours, multiple jobs and even when taking vacation are often "on call" for work.

God knows that this is a soul sucking time. So how, when God actually commanded us to rest, commanded us to tend to our souls, can we do that in a fast-paced world? Perhaps, the first place to start is to recognize that this pace is faster than any time in history and question whether we need to truly accept it as necessary. Perhaps, we need to question the assumption that we have to have our phones on at all times, question the assumption that we can't take a day, an afternoon, an hour, even a minute, to just be quiet and sit. Perhaps, we need to practice rest until we can get comfortable with rest.

I totally understand that it is easy to get trapped in a pace of life which keeps us moving at all times and exhausts us, and yet we need to break free. We need to embrace soul time, we need to embrace Sabbath time. If you can only start by taking a minute to stop and just be, start there. If you can rest for five minutes, one hour, half a day, even a whole day, do what you can.

Rediscover the delight of rest, the delight of not being defined by how much you can do. Rediscover the delight of spending Sabbath time with God, and let your soul catch up. 

Jesus said come to me all who are weary…and you will find rest for your souls. Let us find rest for our souls.

Bishop Gretchen Rehberg,
Episcopal Diocese of Spokane

While the saying about ostriches burying their heads in the sand is not actually true, the point is obvious to most of us. Some of us think that if we don't acknowledge things or say them out loud, they won't happen. Others want to know the facts to figure out what it may mean, so they can know what is coming. Of course, there are also some people who are realistic about some matters and bury their heads about other things. I tend to want to know the news, good or bad because I don't like surprises.

In the Church, the good news is that God is alive and well, and the Good News of love and grace is being shared and lived out with our neighbors.

The not-so-good news is that we are living in a different reality than 50 or even five years ago. Churches are smaller and aging. This is not a judgment of church leaders. It is just a fact. There are now more "less than full-time" congregations where staffing is difficult due to geographical location or lack of a parsonage, among other things.

The changes are not only in the local churches. Changes are also taking place in the clerical leadership of the church. Fewer persons are attending seminary, clergy are leaving ministry, and retirees are really retiring. In addition, an increasing number of clergy have become embedded in their communities because they bought a home, have a spouse working there or other such things. All of which make our style of itinerancy more complicated.

We are all better off knowing the reality of our situation. Our churches are becoming smaller, and appointments are increasingly difficult.

This is causing us to think about how ministry will move forward. We discuss this at the cabinet level, but we also need to have discussions in our local churches. We need to face the reality that how we support local churches must change.

We need to face some realities.

We need to figure out how one clergyperson might serve multiple congregations/appointments. This means pastors will rotate between two or three churches, or two clergy might serve five churches.

For many churches, this is scary because we have come to expect every congregation deserves a full-time pastor. So, a pastor serving multiple charges is not a new idea. Our Wesleyan roots had their genesis in strong local lay leadership and a circuit rider who was available for the sacramental duties and discipleship.

In our present-day churches, this model would require increased laity involvement and strong lay leadership—lay people who can preach and teach. Laity would need to have training through programs, such as Certified Lay Servant, Certified Lay Speaker, Certified Lay Minister or the Local Licensed Pastor Course of Study.

Another reality we need to face is the need for cooperation across denominational lines. We need to fill pulpits and have leaders with sacramental authority from other like-minded denominations. This could mean that our churches would be staffed by Lutheran or Presbyterian clergy, full-time or part-time.

This is our current reality. We can do the proverbial burying our heads in the sand, or we can accept the new realities and approach the challenges with intention, purpose and grace.

I am not forecasting that the church is dying. I actually have hope for its future, but it may require different models of ministry and staffing. How God might be calling us to live into our faith?

District Superintendent Daniel Miranda
Inland District & Seven Rivers District Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church