The World's Okayest Pastor

I’m a minister and I care about ministerial credentials. This is partially why I enjoy my work on my association’s COM (Committee on Ministry - we work with those who have ministerial standing and those who are discerning a call to ministerial). I’d like to think that I’m fairly good at it. I have gone to college and seminary and keep up with certificates and continuing education yearly. I find this to be important because I want to be the best I can be and faith is constantly evolving along with the scholarship. So I am very bothered when I see colleagues who don’t do continuing education. I’m gravely concerned about people who think they can become pastors simply by going online and paying a fee or taking a one weekend class. I’m not saying that lay people, those who don’t go to seminary or divinity school, cannot become great, well rounded pastors. I fully support alternative routes to ministry and if I was looking at going into ministry today, I would probably use an alternative ...

I have a confession: I will disappoint people as a pastor. This is a reality I live almost daily. I see it when I'm introduced by my last name and watch as a person's face falls when they realize I'm female. I see it in some folks who see my tattoos and shake their head in disapproval that I'd mark my body. I will disappoint people as a pastor because I will make a mistake and/or forget something. Yes I try to remember what I'm told on the fly, but my brain is not as good as it once was. Sunday mornings before and after worship are not always the best time to tell me things because my brain wrestles with many things. (Note - help your pastor out and write stuff down for us. We thank you in advance.) I will disappoint people by my choice to schedule time off when they feel that I should be present with them. While I personally, and many of my colleagues do the same, will attend to true crisis during our off time, others have different values, priorities and expec...

I learned many things while I was in seminary. I learned things from books, my professors and teachers, classmates. I learned a lot about my self during the process. Some of it was easy, others were very painful. I came away with a lot of knowledge. However as I have lived into this thing called ministry I have a list of things I wish I had been told, taught. So here is what I have learned and lived into so maybe it'll help others. Plus some of it is just plain funny how I learned these things. Laws and Rules- Although many churches are exempt from certain things, they are still called to follow many laws and rules. One of the main ones that comes up often is copyright laws and rules. Churches are notorious  for being communities of paper. We make a lot of copies of things and hand them out: bulletins, newsletters, inserts, etc. And while this isn't all bad to give people something to read and to take home it brings up the question of what are congregations legally allowed t...