John Wesley is quoted as saying, “The world is my parish.” Most of us, when we sense a call by God, do not understand that call to be confined to one particular church or even to just the activities of a congregation. Some follow that call in non-parish ministry but even those who persue the ministry in a parish setting see their ministry as extending beyond the immediate congregation. Sometimes that will unfold in a commitment to a particular cause or participation in a community ministry. Sometimes it will result in participation in a denominational effort that is larger than what happens in the congregation. I was often involved in hunger issues and efforts to combat racism in our community. Currently I have focused a lot of my efforts on helping the denomination improve their ministry to other clergy.
When done with a proper balance, these trans-congregational efforts often enrich the life of the congregation as well. Often the congregation recognizes but rarely voices their support of such efforts on behalf of the clergy. One of the ways to support a pastor’s sense of call would be to identify such activities as part of the pastor’s call. I know one congregation that even wrote into the terms of call an expectation that the pastor would be engaged in leading the congregation into greater commitment to mission beyond the congregation.
A good first step would be to have an open conversation with the pastor about his or her passions for ministry that extend beyond the local church. Having identified some of those areas of interest, a second step would be to explore with the pastor how those efforts might enrich the congregation’s ministry. A third step would be to communicate to the congregation both the pastor’s interest and the vision of how this strengthens the congregation’s ministry.
Most congregations would resonate with Wesley’s statement and affirm that God is calling the congregation to minister to the world as well. However, often they hesitate to understand how that might be implemented. It would be healthy for a congregation and supportive of their pastor’s call to develop a process where that undersanding of ministry might be made more explicit.
