UNITED REFORMED CHURCH
SOUTH MANCHESTER CHURCHES
Being a minister

This is an article taken from Heald Green's monthly newsletter for September 2005. This has of course been done with Mike Walsh's permission. Maybe it will strike a chord with someone out there?

Dear Friends,

Being a minister of Word and Sacraments is the best job in the world!   I've never wanted to do anything else;  I've never known what else to do. To help people to encounter God, the God who's beyond, around and within us all, who we find in story, shared experience and relationship.
This role to which the church ordains people involves no change in status, gives no special powers, just the privilege of the freedom to spend time on three core tasks:-

1. Sharing with people in the significant moments in their life, to encounter God in the highs and the lows.
2. Sharing with people in the ordinary times, to find God in the ordinary, as well as the tragedy and the joys.
3. To preach, teach, baptise and break bread.

Sharing the Highs and Lows

Sharing with people in the significant moments of life is a privilege. When such moments as these occur, they take priority over all else. Whether sharing with a family to plan a Baptism, or being with people at the time of a death, helping people to encounter God in both times of joy and distress, is what makes this the best job in the world. Yet these encounters are often few and far between, my role must be more than to be ready to be called upon for a Baptism or funeral. What do I do in the 'ordinary' times?

Sharing with people in the ordinary times.

I've never known a church that doesn't know what their minister should be doing, and I'm equally sure I fail to fulfil many of your expectations!   But maybe that's because we've all lost sight of the second of a minister's three core tasks.  During the 'ordinary' times, the role is exactly the same as during the special moments, to help people encounter God in their everyday lives. The significant moments will continue to come and go, but more often the task is simply 'how is God to be found in the ordinary'?

We often cry to God in distress, and hopefully remember to thank God in our joy, but do we remember to seek God in the ordinary? God who we see in Jesus, who took the ordinary of life and made it holy, breaking everyday bread and saying 'remember me'.

But it seems it's our way of being church which is distracting from the core task of ministry when the busy-ness of church life - when meetings about buildings and structures - take over. At times I feel more like a manager or politician than a minister. Helping people to encounter God is the primary task, each and every week, even if the roof is leaking or the hall has been left in a mess!

To preach, teach, baptise and break bread

In both special and ordinary times my role is to help people encounter God, to preach, teach, baptise and break bread. So when special times are scarce, when everyone knows how I should be spending my time, when the ordinary replaces the extraordinary, it's easy to forget what a great job this is! So I don't always get it right, and like poor old Jeremiah, perhaps sometimes I need reminding!

This is the best job in the world, sharing with people in the significant moments of life. This is the best job in the world, finding God in the ordinary. This is the best job in the world, having time to learn more and more about the God who made us, who is beyond, within and around us all. This is the best job in the world, to preach, teach, baptise and break bread. This is the best job in the world … when the church is confident enough to let its ministers do it!