This time, when you communicate with the session, you are inviting them to have a conversation with their pastor as a board.
The conversation begins by simply verbally recognizing that the pastor’s spiritual life is critical to the health of the congregation. Since you are bringing the whole session in on the conversation, you might want to use the analogy of breathing. Since the Hebrew word for spirit can also be translated breath, think of what happens if a person has the responsibility to breathe out continually and never takes the opportunity to breathe in. You are inviting the session to work with the pastor in protecting time for him or her to breathe.
Next, ask the pastor to share with the session what s/he does to attend to personal spirituality. Also ask “What are some of the realities of your life that interfere with paying attention to your spiritual health.” Then ask “What types of steps can we and members of the congregation take that will provide you more opportunity to pay attention to the spirit.”
One congregation identified a day each month that the pastor leaves the church and goes on a mini-retreat focused on his own spiritual needs. They even found a convenient home that was available for him one day each month. Another idea might be to share with the congregation that a certain hour each week has been specifically set aside for the pastor to be in prayer and personal Bible study. Identifying that hour for the congregation both helps protect that hour and it makes the congregation aware of the importance of the pastor’s spiritual life.
To engage the congregation, the session could tell them that once a quarter they were going to be asked to give feedback to the pastor on the best sermon for that quarter and the most inspiring moment in the liturgy. For both the pastor and the congregation this would raise their awareness of what is happening for them in worship.
You could also invite people in the congregation to write a note about a particular way they have been touched by the pastor’s ministry and the effect it has had on their spiritual journey.
It is also important to regularly invite the congregation to pray for the pastor.
All of these are ideas of different ways to connect the pastor’s spiritual journey with the journey of the congregation. In the conversation with the pastor, many other ideas may emerge.
