wfn.org | Lecturer says pastors too often forget to minister to themselves

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Note #6238 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

27-October-2000
00377

Stress & distress

Lecturer says pastors too often forget to minister to themselves

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- On a blank page of newsprint, the Rev. Howard Rice kept
scrawling down the roles that ministers are expected to play within
congregations.

	He honed it down to eight: evangelist, sacramental-person, preacher,
teacher, counselor, agent of social change, manager, and in Rice's words,
"pointer to God."

	All important. But overwhelming.

	"We just keep adding and adding and adding and adding ... and we never
subtract," Rice said, prompting heads to bob in agreement around the
conference room at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on Oct.
26.

	Rice was the kick-off lecturer in a six-part series of reflections called
"Come to the Well: Sabbath Keeping for Church Leaders."

	All eight sounded right to the Rev. Cynthia Jennison, of Petersburg, Ind.,
who noted that, even in her congregation of about 50 members, a minister
needs a wide variety of talents: "There are 10 different roles. And you're
expected to be able to do all of those. Do 'em well. Do 'em all at once."

	To handle the stress, Rice, who has pastored congregations and served as
chaplain at San Francisco Theological Seminary, and now spends his time
writing and lecturing about spirituality, reckons that ministers need to
take better spiritual care of themselves. So he and about 40 other church
leaders spent two days together, reflecting on their calls to ministry and
the traditional disciplines the church recommends for spiritual growth.

	"I don't know any other way," Rice said in an interview with the
Presbyterian News Service, describing today's church as an institution that
has succumbed to the "critical spirit" of the culture and opted for a more
corporate way of working -- to the detriment of ministers who find it
impossible to do everything and keep everyone happy.

	"That's what's happening," he said, "and (spiritual practice) is the only
way I know to get the inner strength to handle what needs to be handled."

	He presented a common-sense list of 10 recommendations:

1. Keep a journal. It will help you focus on your spiritual life. Use it to
tell God what's in
your heart and to map your emotional ups and downs. You may see patterns
emerging seasonally or in step with the church calendar.

2. A minister's personal calendar, Rice said, is one of the first things
that needs to be
brought under control. One must set aside time on a monthly basis for prayer
and retreat time. "If you don't do that," he warned, "your calendar will be
shaped by everything except your own soul."

3. Take time for Sabbath-play. That's personal time, for hobbies and spouses
and children.
Take a day that runs counter to the hectic rhythm of the rest of the week.
To make his point, Rice asked the pastors in the room how they spent their
days off. Most of them said they almost never get a day off.

4. Prayer time is essential. "We need to find a prayer style that fits us,
that is not only
comfortable, but is what we want to do. There's no sense forcing ourselves
into a manner of prayer that we'll just dread," Rice said. "It has to be
nourishing time that we really cherish and want."

5. Find time for devotional reading -- what Rice called "soul reading." He
doesn't promote
the Bible for preachers, because it too often makes them think about texts
for sermons, not about their own spiritual condition. Rice recommended
bite-size portions of the classics: St. John of the Cross, Julian of
Norwich, Brother Lawrence.  "And make it do-able," he said. "Too often, we
make grand plans -- so big that we never do it."

6. Go to worship in another tradition. Take in a Mass, or visit a synagogue.
"Worship is
hard to do when you're leading it," Rice said. "Clergy need to worship in a
different tradition. The more different it is, the harder it is to (play the
role of) the ‘resident critic.'"

7. It's essential that a minister take "retreat time" -- time to sit and
pray, read the Bible or
a devotional book, to look at the cross -- and to do it on a work day
instead of using vacation time.

8. Another necessity, Rice said, is physical exercise.

9. For ministers, he said, hobbies aren't a luxury; they're activities that
give ministers
energy, rather than draining energy away. "(Hobbies) get us into a different
space from the regular routine of work."

10. Break the isolation that is the bane of many ministers, using lectionary
groups, periodic 	therapy, and most important, direct spiritual direction.

	Rice's listeners offered up other suggestions -- fasting, alms-giving and
other regimes of spiritual discipline.

	The Rev. Ann Haw, of Scottsburg, Ind., sat across the room from Rice,
stitching as she listened. "I came here partly because of the idea of a day
away for a change," she said. "That's very, very important, and something
clergy need to learn more about. People realize they're frustrated. But
because we're clergy, we must look for spiritual answers to our
frustration." Haw told PNS, "Loneliness is a huge problem. Many clergy feel
very much alone."

	Loneliness came up more than once in the conversation: Who to talk to?
Someone in the parish? Or is that dangerous? A presbytery executive? Or
would a minister's woes re-emerge at an inopportune time in the Committee on
Ministry? There were plenty of frustrations, too -- among them, being
required to serve as the building's custodian, mediating petty conflicts,
untangling staff issues, running seemingly useless Session meetings, having
to be one's own secretary, and cleaning up the messes left by a
clergy-predecessor.

	"The stress for ministers is unrelieved. There's never a vacation from it,"
Rice said. "When Easter's over, you start getting ready for the next thing.
The demand never lets up."

	Part of the problem, he said, is that most ministers end up being unable to
say "No," adding more stress.

	"There's a lack of feeding. The minister is the one who feeds the flock.
Many ministers don't know how to get fed," Rice said.

	Searching for God's presence is what pulls people into a congregation,
according to Rice, which is why he likes the term "pointer to God," to
describe one of the more important roles clergy assume. It is a term he
coined for the pastor as someone who points to the holy.

	"The pastor is the guide to the spiritual life," he said. "That is a
central metaphor for ministry. It gets at the hunger of our culture, the
reason why so many people leave the church, especially younger people. They
don't see anything going on there.

	"The church, it seems to me, can be a place where souls are nurtured, where
peoples' ... hunger for God is met. That's what is needed if the church is
going to be revitalized today. We don't need more meetings. We don't need
more techniques. People will look to the church to meet their need for God
or they will look elsewhere.

	"And that is what they're doing, in droves."

	Five other presenters will complete the seminary's "Sabbath Keeping"
series. The Rev. Kristine Haig, coordinator for the PC(USA)'s spiritual
formation program, leads the retreat on Nov. 30, with "Sabbath: Entering
God's Promised Rest;" the Rev. Richard H. Humke, an Episcopal priest, will
appear on Jan. 4, with "Rekindling the Fire: Caring for Yourself in the New
Year;" W. Eugene March, the seminary's Arnold Black Rhodes professor of the
Old Testament, will be featured on Feb. 1, with
"Sabbath-making/Sabbath-keeping: Sabbath for Busy People;" Kristine
Harpenau, ongoing formation director of the Sisters of St. Benedict, will
lead the March 1 session with "Lenten Sabbath: A Slow Greening;" and
finally, Steven Wirth, spiritual director, will speak on "Experiencing Hope
-- Finding God in All Life," on April 5.

	Each retreat costs $50. Housing may be arranged through the seminary; call
502-895-3411, extension 450.

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