We continue making use of these fictional stories to explore the complexity of ministry. Today is the first part of two blogs making use of the first story in Volume 3, Clergy Tales–Tails: When God Wags the Tale, amzn.to/15TORlR .
Sometimes when you proclaim the truth it has unintended consequences. A pastor is responsible for what s/he preaches but has little control over what people hear.
PROTECTING CLERGY PRIVACY
While the story is written in the first person, for the sake of discussion, let us use the name of Paul for the pastor in the story.
Paul makes the following statement about clergy availability.
Clergy are always caught in the bind of wanting to be accessible but also needing periods of uninterrupted time to accomplish a myriad of other tasks. Some use their secretary or an irritating electronic voice offering a variety of button options in order to protect their privacy. Having experienced the frustration of trying to get past such barriers myself, and perhaps not wanting the church’s message to be one of unavailability, I chose to keep my office door open to all visitors.
What are the pros and cons of such openness? What is the best way to balance being open to people’s needs and maintaining a measure of privacy in order to concentrate on other tasks?
SERMONS PREACHED AND SERMONS HEARD
Paul makes two comments about interacting with others regarding a sermon he has preached.” I confess, as I’ve heard many preachers admit, that once a sermon is preached, I quickly put it out of my mind as I begin to focus on what is next. Besides, I hadn’t preached for too many years before I realized that what people hear can be at wide variance with what I thought I had said. When someone wants to comment on a past sermon, particularly one preached several weeks in the past, I often make some vague response in hopes that what they say next will jog my memory, and I won’t appear to be a complete dolt.”
What is your experience with respect to people wanting to discuss a sermon you have preached? How does it affect your preaching to know that people can hear something totally different from what you intended to communicate in a sermon? How can we assist the congregation in recognizing that in addition to our responsibility to preach well, they have a responsibility to listen well?
ON NOT BEING DEFENSIVE
As Paul heard Eleanor tell him what she had heard and how it had affected her family, Paul thought, “I remember feeling very frightened that I might say the wrong thing. I knew for certain that I had to avoid getting defensive about what she had heard in the sermon. This was not about me but about her. “Eleanor,” I said, “I can’t take back the sermon, but I can help you think this through if you are willing to talk about it some more.”
How does one avoid becoming defensive when a sermon has had a serious impact on another person?
This discussion continues in the next blog. Go to amzn.to/15TORlR to see this volume of Clergy Tales–Tails
