Church Work: Doing the Dishes

“I don’t want to sound cynical, because (as a member of the clergy) I love what I do. Only it’s not what I expected. I thought I would spend hours in a leather chair, reading books, writing sermons, keeping appointments with souls who sought my counsel…I thought I would pray more. Instead, I answer telephone calls, oversee budgets, pay bills, proofread bulletins, and take the church cat to the vet.” -Barbara Brown Taylor

“Everybody wants to change the world…nobody wants to do the dishes.” -Shane Claiborne

I want to start a Friday series today that will run for a few months. Some of it is old stuff that I’ve written before (and was some of the most downloaded/viewed content on my old blog) and some of it will be new stuff I’ve written just for this.

But this isn’t a series for everyone. It’s for people who find themselves working or volunteering in a local church.

If you are like me, when I first started out in ministry I had all these lofty ideas about changing the world. You’ve read the Bible, you’ve heard the stories and you’ve signed on for this great thing called ministry. But somewhere along the way, you realized that it is very different than what you expected. You’ve been inspired, but now you’ve hit reality. And the life and calling you thought you’d signed on for are very different than the one you actually have.

Recently on Twitter, James K.A. Smith said to anyone considering pastoring a church, we should ask ourselves would we still be willing to do it if it we didn’t get to preach? If all we were called to do was to do funerals and hospital visits and weddings? After 15 years of ministry I’ve learned why that’s such an important question for young ministers to ask. Because it’s in those moments you actually learn to love actual people. 

Those are the moments when family dysfunctions rise to the top, when you find out who people really are, and when they really need to someone to walk along side them. But most of the time, seminaries spend a lot of time talking about how to read the Bible, how to preach, or learn the original language (and rightfully so), but most of ministry is doing stuff that is different than that.

This is all about practical ministry stuff for other preachers and ministers and local church volunteers. I’d wanted to write down somewhere some of the stuff that I’ve learned and am learning, and I’d also like to try and pass it on to other people who are serving in ministry. Each week I spend writing a sermon, planning a series, doing funerals, trying to get out in the community, visiting people in the hospital or prison, dealing with criticism, learning to play and enjoy my family with proper boundaries between Church and home…all of these things I still consistently struggle with. And because I’m still relatively young and new at this whole ministry experience, I have not yet forgotten what I did not know.

Because of luck of the draw, I’ve been blessed with great mentors and friendships with people who are brilliant leaders, pastors, thinkers and preachers. I’ve been blessed to work at two large and healthy churches that care about the right things, and have had regular access to tremendous resources and people who have taught me more than I could have ever learned any other way. This is an attempt to try and collect ministerial wisdom from a variety of sources, and pass on some of these pieces of wisdom that I have learned, and am in the process of learning, to my friends in ministry in other places in the world. This blog series will try and cover everything from how to plan a sermon series to how to do a funeral.

I don’t think I’ve got ministry figured out, but I do know some people that are a lot further on this journey and have been helpful to me.

And I’ve learned enough to realize that what I’m tempted to write off as un-extra-ordinary is actually the moments that I’m making the biggest difference. After all, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel with one ordinary brush stroke at a time.

And by the way, in case we’ve forgotten, that too was Church Work.

So if there is a particular aspect of ministry that you would like for us (myself or another minister) to write about, comment and ask about it. Chances are if you have a question, there are other ministers and church volunteers that are asking the same one.  I hope that this can be a valuable, practical resource for people who are serving in ministry in other places in the country and world.

I hope it helps minister’s feel equipped to do the more practical side of ministry and see why it matters so much.

Because everyone who wants to change the world has to learn to do the dishes, and when you do, you learn that doing the dishes is one of the ways you can actually change the world.

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