Let me start off by saying that I am thankful to have a group of pastor/preacher friends that met together on a regular basis. Such a group is the exception, not the norm, but there are benefits of gathering with like-minded individuals and sharing. Every Monday morning in our case, a group of 8 or 10 Baptist preachers, the vast majority of whom pastor small churches in rural northwest Georgia, meet to talk about things going on at church, share prayer requests and then hear a sermon. The speaker will be someone from our group or a guest we have brought in, sometimes a missionary or someone from the state office. After the meeting, which starts at 11:30 and lasts about an hour, most of us will go somewhere and eat together. We pitch in and buy the speaker’s lunch. Sometimes the conversation continues at lunch and sometimes it’s kind of loud and you can only speak to one or two people that are closest to you.

For anyone that has never been a church pastor, it may come as a shock to learn it can be a lonely life. When I was a kid I imagined everyone in the congregation wanted to be the pastor’s best friend. My dad had a couple of really good pastor friends and the supportive relationships I saw growing up are not what most pastors have with members of their congregation. Sometimes church members are the source of problems and anxiety; it can be a struggle to find a healthy balance of serving and leading the members of a church. Many of them are friendly as long as nothing is asked of them outside of church meeting hours. Some are helpful while others may be, well to be blunt, your worst enemy. Some church members intentionally put up barriers that prevent them from getting “too close” to a pastor because they know he may move on to another church someday; he could be called somewhere else, leave the ministry, or be torn down by some of the problematic people I have already mentioned. For many reasons the issues, concerns and even the daily life of a ministry leader can only be understood by other people that have been in that position.

Wow, let me reset the tone here. This past weekend I got to officiate the wedding of two of our younger church members. Many in my congregation are senior citizens but in the past year we had several members of an extended family become regulars and a couple in their mid 20’s, that I baptized last year, were married on Saturday. I don’t want to come right out and say their families are a bunch of rednecks but they would proudly own that and I’m not kidding. There were some interesting moments, mainly from folks that did not grow up in church and tend to just shout out when it’s not their turn to speak – to put it delicately. I shared much of that experience at the ministers meeting on Monday morning. And a handful of others had interesting stories from their weekend as well.

One pastor got a call from a family on vacation that was worried their house was being flooded. They were contacted by the water company about continuously running water and consequently found out that electricity was being consumed non-stop as well, in a house that should be empty. The pastor went to check it out and had to basically break in, standing on a chair and diving head first through a small bathroom window. It turned out to be nothing more than a bathroom faucet, the hot water faucet though, that had been left turned on by a small child. Another pastor was called about a raccoon – not necessarily because he was the pastor, just because this person knew he was “kind of country” and probably knew something about dealing with raccoons. This one was friendly and too comfortable around people, possibly having been someone’s pet. I was once called out to one of my deacon’s homes to deal with a beaver caught in a snare. He was stove up with a case of gout and unable to hobble out of his house to take care of it. Like I said, we are out in the country, and he wanted to know if I can come to his house and shoot a beaver. They sometimes build dams where they shouldn’t and blocking the spillway to a small lake put the actual earth dam, and the drive to his home, in danger if water poured across the top of it. Don’t call PETA, we did what had to be done.

Sometimes pastors discuss the difficulties of applying certain passages in Romans or Corinthians to modern day audiences in the United States. Sometimes we stay up late putting little chocolate candies in plastic Easter eggs. The family did a good job cleaning up after the wedding reception Saturday evening but by Monday morning the trash bags they left sitting beside the trash can outside had been torn into by animals. The pastor is called to preach sermons, lead prayer meetings, meet with families for counseling and “other duties as needed.” The seminary course catalog does not have anything for breaking and entering or putting down wildlife. Maybe there should be a whole class on decorating the sanctuary for VBS but there is not. They say experience is the best teacher and if you ask your pastor, and he’s honest, he has probably had some.