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An Honest Day in the Life of a Minister 1/3/25

 Today started with attempting a visit of a member with Covid 19 in the hospital. The daughter wants everyone to go visit her because she's lonely. Ma'am she's in isolation because she has a contagious virus. We will call, send cards and flowers, but I will not be encouraging everyone to go visit and spread anymore germs around. So I went and masked up. Poor member was sleeping very soundly so I left my card with a small note, said a silent prayer and left. I refuse to wake someone in the hospital. It's just bad practice.

Then I printed bulletins. Copiers are weird but vital. I appreciate that this one will fold the bulletin for me. However I can't get it to fold the large print bulletins. Go figure. It's been weird not doing a bulletin every week myself. It's amazing what a good secretary and an updated piece of equipment can do for you.

Then there was the funeral. A former lay licensed minister was contacted by a former member to do a son's funeral. Never called the church or me. I just get emails about this is happening and this is who's doing it. Umm.. no. This former lay licensed minister choose to retire therefore you don't get to just officiate weddings, funerals, or any other worship service because you don't have standing. And no you don't get to wear a robe because you're not a recognized minister anymore.

This week has been emails with the licensed minister of a previous minister taught me how to do this. To now "I'm not sure I want to do it." "Can you print this bulletin that's not formatted correctly?" Can you open the obituary that was sent to me because I can't? (It wasn't sent.) Should we have coffee and tea? No lady. I'm not going to bail you out after you put me in a bad position. Had a conversation with the former lay minister before the service and anyone was around that she knows that she never should have said yes to any of this without first calling the church to make sure the date and time was available and then also calling me and asking my permission since I'm the senior pastor.

Winds up the day with having to lock up after the funeral because the former lay minister beat half of the family out of the building. How not to be present with the family 101. And people wonder why I'm tempted to go sit and have several beers or I consume large amounts of coffee, tea and diet soda.

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