Over the next several days, I want to suggest a couple of samples of how pastors and educators might live out the commandments to Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. I particularly want to make some suggestions for a multi-staff church but it could easily be adapted to a solo pastor in relation to the church’s session or personnel committee.
Hopefully a multi-staff church has a regular staff meeting to take care of necessary decisions and to build support for each other. Having experienced such meetings, I’m aware of how often they are so focused on the necessary business that they don’t take time to enjoy each other.
In my most recent church, in addition to taking a day each year to plan the church calendar, we also took another day to just have fun together. One time I took them to a fun arcade, gave them a bunch of quarters and told them to go play the games and come back and share the experience. Another time we went to a pottery place where they showed us how to cast a pot and then each of us both created and painted our own creation. One day we went to a Barnes and Noble and they were asked to go to a section that they normally would not visit, spend a half-hour learning something in that area, and then come back and share with the group. After that experience, I told them that they had an hour to pick out any books they wanted up to a total of $75 and report back to the group. Another day we went to a children’s science musuem.
All of this was designed to help us enjoy ourselves and each other. Have you had similar activities to build the sense of community of your staff? It’s easier to work on the normal relational problems and issues that arise if you have built some bonds among each other previously.
