The assets that are our pastors

VP Ron Morgan and I have at long last sat down with each of our pastors to review the year past and current. As those who know him can imagine, Ron did a wonderful job of creating a space where real sharing could occur. I learned a great deal from this process.

Our pastors are truly longing for feedback of all types. We will be developing a survey with the goal of getting broader based feedback than is typical. However, like our meeting, surveys are events, and our pastors deserve and need an ongoing process that allows them continuous growth.

As a Council we need to figure out how to address this need, however, it will take a commitment of the congregation to ongoing feedback. As discussed in a recent blog, there are many reasons people might find it difficult to provide pastors feedback. However, none of them are ultimately legitimate, or at least helpful.

As a congregation and as a Council we need to treat our pastors as the incredible assets they are. I believe that the Church is the people, and the work of the congregation, the collective ministry of God’s people. In the Lutheran tradition pastors are called to ministries of Word and Sacrament. Everything else we, the priesthood of believers, are all called to; every aspect of ministry and administration of the Church.

We may, for a variety of reasons, ask or let our pastors take on responsibilities we can, and possibly should do. However, we must recognize that the congregation, its vitality, its faithfulness, its growth, its steadfastness, its ministries, its outreach, its education, its physical plant, its financial health, its hospitality, its resilience, all are our individual and corporate responsibilities as members.

We at First Trinity ask and permit our pastors to take on what is truthfully more than their fair share of responsibilities. Yes, we are paying them, but just like you can pay someone to care for your home or your children, they remain your responsibility.

I am concerned that we have not been good partners with our pastors. We know how fortunate we are to have them, we appreciate their work ethic, their talents, their availability, the many ways they minister to us. However, it is clear to me that we can and should do more to support them, to more equitably share the responsibilities that our in fact our own. All they are asking for is feedback, but I think we can do better.

Whatever solutions we raise have to be based on the experience and needs of both our pastors and the congregation. This requires dialog and commitment to mutual problem solving. I am going to raise this issue with our church Council next Sunday morning. If anyone wants to join in this discussion they can meet with us in the library at 7:45 a.m., talk to Council members and officers, talk to the pastors, or even respond to this blog.

This issue is tightly interwoven with each of the year’s priorities:

• It is all about stewardship. How can we be better stewards of the asset that is our pastors? What would change if we were each better stewards of all our God-given gifts, including our time and energy?


• It is also all about governance. How can we redesign our governance structure to allow First Trinity to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible and to provide a reliable vetting process so we can confidently identify how all of our activities and programs fit in our overall strategy for achieving our vision, living out our mission, and be true to our values.


• And, most certainly, it is all about redevelopment. We have a lot of work to do as a congregation before we can make wise and informed decisions regarding what to do about the asset that is our location and our land. Unfortunately most of the work has been born by Pastor Tom. The Redevelopment Committee and the Council need to step up to the plate and make the best possible use of Pastor Tom’s experience, knowledge and talents and do the rest ourselves.
  

These are the questions and issues that we will be exploring together in the coming months. I look forward to your input and trust that together First Trinity will make decisions that recognize and make prudent use of the God-given assets we have in Pastors Tom and Wendy.