Out of the Office and Into the Church
Nearly every church building has one. They vary in size, style and usability, and sometimes they are hard to find, often tucked in behind the chancel walls or somewhere near the Sunday School classrooms. In many buildings they are prominently featured right inside the front door, providing easy access to all who enter. But in one form or another, no matter what the building looks like, it is usually there – the pastor’s office.
For many of us our office is like a staging area, filled
with all the things that we need in order to do effective ministry. We think of it as the center of our
professional existence, the place where we write our sermons, counsel our
members, and pray to our God. Our
offices may look different, but they have many things in common – shelves of
books, piles of papers, a desk, some chairs, a computer or laptop, and often
many personal mementos. Our office is
like a “pastor cave”, our personalized space where we go to do the work of the
church.
It is important to have a place like that, a space where we
feel comfortable, where we can write effectively, where we can spread out our
resources and do exegesis, where we can meet with people who need a private
moment to talk about difficult and often very personal issues.
The office is the setting for many critical ministry
moments, but it should never be mistaken for the center of our ministry
itself. As pastors we should be careful
that we do not become office bound, that we do not fall into a routine that
takes us to our desks each day, waiting for people to come to our door. The truth is that the pastor’s office is
probably the last place many of our members want to be seen, especially if they
have a problem. And it is a foreboding
place for non-members or members of other churches who feel a need to seek out
our help. In this day and age, a rural pastor who sits in the office and waits
for ministry to come to his or her door will likely be as lonely as the Maytag repairman.
In order to effectively encounter the church, we need to get
out of our offices and into the community.
Real ministry happens when we interact with people in their daily lives
and are aware of the places they frequent and the problems they face. When we make ourselves accessible in
non-threatening environments, we invite conversation about daily life that can
be an entry point for sharing God’s love.
And it enables us to visibly demonstrate that Christ’s presence extends
far beyond the walls of the sanctuary.
Discussions that start over coffee in the café often lead to more
meaningful topics of concern or a quest for counsel from individuals who might
never find their way inside the church doors.
So where do we go to be the church? In the small Western
Iowa town I used to serve, there was no home mail delivery. Everyone, residents and businesses alike, had
to send someone to the post office every day to collect their mail. That
included us. Nearly every morning it
would amaze my wife that a short four block trip could take two or three
hours. Why? Because inevitably this
relatively quick task would put me in contact with several church members and
even more non-members from the local community.
While running to get the mail may have seemed like an inconvenience, it
turned into an opportunity. It was a
chance to visit and pass the time of day, and in many cases, to talk about
something much deeper. Many a
conversation moved from the weather, to “since you are here, I was
wondering…” As time went on, the people
in town knew that the pastor got the mail every morning and I came to suspect
that our chance encounters on the sidewalk were often more than just a
coincidence.
Every town, big or small, has places where people
gather. Many of my friends and former
students who minister in urban contexts tell of setting up their office at
Panera or Starbucks. In small towns,
there is usually a café, coffee shop, or convenience store where the locals
gather to get a cup of coffee, maybe have a little breakfast, and share the
news of the day. A smart pastor knows
how to get into the line of fire, finding a seat near the action which will
eventually invite conversations with others nearby. My wife calls this the “ten foot rule.”
Simply put, it means that when people come within ten feet of us we should see
that as an opportunity to visit. Most
will respond favorably, some will not.
But the reward is worth the effort.
Whether you are at the Breadbox Café, or Sparky’s One Stop convenience
store, or even the high school basketball game, be aware of your
interactions. That offhand comment about
the amount of rain we received last night may be more than meets the eye.
What I am suggesting is nothing new. Successful pastors have been doing this for a
long time. But we live in an era that
has advanced the opportunity. In the
past, these little forays into the culture of the community have been seen as
temporary expeditions. Eventually, the
office and “real work” summoned us back to our home base. But today technology has made our office
portable. The resources that we once
kept at the church building are now available in our smart phones, laptops, or
tablets. Keeping up with correspondence,
doing devotions, even basic exegesis and sermon preparation are made easier
through our electronic devices. We can now do those tasks anywhere. And the amount of time that we can spend out
in the community, along with the opportunity to interact in the name of God, is
increased exponentially. We no longer
need to head back to the office, except for special needs, because the office
is always with us.
In a small town or rural community, the pastor is much more
than the shepherd of a particular congregation.
Pastors who interact with everyone, regardless of church affiliation,
and who are accessible and easy to talk to, often find that others see them as
the de facto chaplain of the community. Credibility comes with time and
practice. If our eye is on serving as an
ambassador of Christ, rather than gaining new members for the flock,
opportunities for service will appear from unexpected places and in the end God
will be glorified.