At a meeting this fall I was asked how what I was doing was any different than a community organizer. The man, a retired clergy person, wanted to know how my job was one of a pastor. It’s a good question, one that has had me thinking on and off about it for the last few months.
In the United Methodist Church traditionally it has been people who have the status of an ordained elder who have been identified as pastor. As I thought about how I am a pastor in this unconventional context the definition of an elder from the website of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church was helpful.
Elders are ordained United Methodist clergy who preach and teach the Word of God, provide pastoral care and counsel, administer the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion, and order the life of the church for service in mission in ministry. The servant leadership of the elder…. expressed by leading the people of God in worship and prayer, leading people to faith in Jesus Christ, exercising pastoral supervision, and ordering the Church in mission in the world. (http://www.gbhem.org/clergy/elders)
Around the dinner table I’m teaching about the word of God, and sometimes I even get to preaching. I show up at hospital bedsides and officiate the funerals of those in my community. I listen as people ask big questions and shower them with love. We’ve had one baptism here and are beginning the practice of holy communion more frequently. We are all about equipping the people who participate in the Sellwood Faith Community to serve and love the people they encounter in their lives. We pray together at dinner and worship formally at Taize. I show up in my community and offer love, and a listening ear as a way to show others what it can mean to have faith in Jesus Christ. I administer the programs and structure of SFC. The way we are set up as a community is all about having a mission in our daily lives.
I am so fortunate to be able to be a pastor in this place, at this time. I know that what I do on a daily basis looks so different from the work my colleague did when he was still serving as a pastor of a local church. I also know that both of us were engaged in the same work, with the same heart to serve God. Aren’t we lucky there is so much diversity in the way of God?
-Pastor Eilidh
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| Testing out the pulpit during a service project at Bethlehem House of Bread. |
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