“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” (John 9:4)
Jesus said what’s in the above verse and it certainly refers to spiritual work, but I’m taking it totally out of context today and applying it to my life and to manual labor. I love the Fall. It’s my favorite season of the year. My second favorite is Spring. My least favorite is Winter and I’m also not a big fan of Summer, although Summer is better than Winter only because you don’t have to deal with snow! I love when the leaves turn color. I don’t even mind raking them up THAT much. Well, it’s not a lot of fun, but it sure beats shoveling snow. I like going to a high school Thanksgiving Day football game, and being frozen to the bone, only to come home, take a hot shower, have a hot cup of coffee and later enjoy a wonderful turkey dinner. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I also enjoy being part of the local clergy association’s Thanksgiving service each year. But there IS a really bad part of my favorite season: FALL IS CRUNCH TIME!
Every year there are a bunch of outdoor manual labor projects which have to be done at the parsonage (minister’s residence) built in 1892 and at the church building (former U.A.W. hall which was completed in early 1954). Every year around April and May I’m aware of these projects. When you’re pastoring a very small church in which there are very few men and very few handymen (and believe me, I’m not much of a handyman) it ends up that at least 80% of the parsonage projects fall on YOU and at least 50% of the church projects fall on YOU. Despite the fact that I’ve done all kinds of lawnmowing and bush trimming and painting out graffiti this Summer, most of the major projects have remained untouched. Each month at the Board meeting I talk about them. We all say “Yeah, we’ll do them.” I even say that. The next month comes, and none of it is done. I’ve faced this in at least 10 previous years of pastoring in Framingham. In at least 5 of those years little or none of the projects actually got done. Being a perfectionist and somewhat compulsive, this meant I had a winter of feeling guilty 90% of the time. Please spare me the lectures and the Scriptures about the fact that we’re not under condemnation and we’re supposed to be joyful. I know all about that. I also know that the way I’m wired, if most of the stuff doesn’t get done I’m going to feel guilty and depressed. HOWEVER, the good news is it’s September and it’s CRUNCH TIME, but at this point the 2007 outdoor manual labor projects are NOT a lost cause!
On Tuesday of this week I mad a list of projects for the church and the parsonage which really should be done by November 22 (Thanksgiving). I got 6 listed for the church and 15 for the parsonage. About half of the 15 are pretty simple things that I could easily finish myself in a couple of dats. But a few of them are pretty intense, especially cleaning and sealing the bulkhead and later wire-brushing it and painting it with a fresh coar of rustoleum. That may not sound like much, but becuause it really should sit for 24 hours after it’s cleaned and sealed (and the weather has GOT to be really good and dry at the time) it really is a 2 day project. The one project for the parsonage that I absolutely will NOT do is clean the gutters. For anyone with any sort of a fear of heights- and that’s me-forget it. The church hired someone to do that about a year ago and if it gets done the church will have to hire someone...probably around early November after most of the leaves are down.
Last year a group of volunteers took a whole Saturday in October and painted the exterior of the church. At that time it had not been painted for several years and it looked terrible. Now, it doesn’t look too bad, but we have enough paint to do it all over again this year and I think we should. I hope to do that on a Saturday in October.
I’m frustrated that the very sunny and dry weather we’re having this week is PERFECT for outdoor painting, and I’ve got some of that to do at the parsonage but I frankly have all sorts of “white collar” ministry work to do this week and I really don’t see myself getting to it this week. What often happened in past years is that any day I wanted to paint it rained and any day I wouldn’t paint it was dry and perfect. That MAY happen this year but I pray it doesn’t.
In Bible College I was taught that the pastor shouldn’t have to worry about most of this stuff- that the church people should do it. Although I DO have a handful of excellent volunteers who do help me, I’ve found that in a very small church, the pastor just plain has to do a lot of this stuff. Yup, it’s Fall and it’s crunch time!
Jesus said what’s in the above verse and it certainly refers to spiritual work, but I’m taking it totally out of context today and applying it to my life and to manual labor. I love the Fall. It’s my favorite season of the year. My second favorite is Spring. My least favorite is Winter and I’m also not a big fan of Summer, although Summer is better than Winter only because you don’t have to deal with snow! I love when the leaves turn color. I don’t even mind raking them up THAT much. Well, it’s not a lot of fun, but it sure beats shoveling snow. I like going to a high school Thanksgiving Day football game, and being frozen to the bone, only to come home, take a hot shower, have a hot cup of coffee and later enjoy a wonderful turkey dinner. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I also enjoy being part of the local clergy association’s Thanksgiving service each year. But there IS a really bad part of my favorite season: FALL IS CRUNCH TIME!
Every year there are a bunch of outdoor manual labor projects which have to be done at the parsonage (minister’s residence) built in 1892 and at the church building (former U.A.W. hall which was completed in early 1954). Every year around April and May I’m aware of these projects. When you’re pastoring a very small church in which there are very few men and very few handymen (and believe me, I’m not much of a handyman) it ends up that at least 80% of the parsonage projects fall on YOU and at least 50% of the church projects fall on YOU. Despite the fact that I’ve done all kinds of lawnmowing and bush trimming and painting out graffiti this Summer, most of the major projects have remained untouched. Each month at the Board meeting I talk about them. We all say “Yeah, we’ll do them.” I even say that. The next month comes, and none of it is done. I’ve faced this in at least 10 previous years of pastoring in Framingham. In at least 5 of those years little or none of the projects actually got done. Being a perfectionist and somewhat compulsive, this meant I had a winter of feeling guilty 90% of the time. Please spare me the lectures and the Scriptures about the fact that we’re not under condemnation and we’re supposed to be joyful. I know all about that. I also know that the way I’m wired, if most of the stuff doesn’t get done I’m going to feel guilty and depressed. HOWEVER, the good news is it’s September and it’s CRUNCH TIME, but at this point the 2007 outdoor manual labor projects are NOT a lost cause!
On Tuesday of this week I mad a list of projects for the church and the parsonage which really should be done by November 22 (Thanksgiving). I got 6 listed for the church and 15 for the parsonage. About half of the 15 are pretty simple things that I could easily finish myself in a couple of dats. But a few of them are pretty intense, especially cleaning and sealing the bulkhead and later wire-brushing it and painting it with a fresh coar of rustoleum. That may not sound like much, but becuause it really should sit for 24 hours after it’s cleaned and sealed (and the weather has GOT to be really good and dry at the time) it really is a 2 day project. The one project for the parsonage that I absolutely will NOT do is clean the gutters. For anyone with any sort of a fear of heights- and that’s me-forget it. The church hired someone to do that about a year ago and if it gets done the church will have to hire someone...probably around early November after most of the leaves are down.
Last year a group of volunteers took a whole Saturday in October and painted the exterior of the church. At that time it had not been painted for several years and it looked terrible. Now, it doesn’t look too bad, but we have enough paint to do it all over again this year and I think we should. I hope to do that on a Saturday in October.
I’m frustrated that the very sunny and dry weather we’re having this week is PERFECT for outdoor painting, and I’ve got some of that to do at the parsonage but I frankly have all sorts of “white collar” ministry work to do this week and I really don’t see myself getting to it this week. What often happened in past years is that any day I wanted to paint it rained and any day I wouldn’t paint it was dry and perfect. That MAY happen this year but I pray it doesn’t.
In Bible College I was taught that the pastor shouldn’t have to worry about most of this stuff- that the church people should do it. Although I DO have a handful of excellent volunteers who do help me, I’ve found that in a very small church, the pastor just plain has to do a lot of this stuff. Yup, it’s Fall and it’s crunch time!
1 comment:
maybe i can help you do stuff when i get home in oct!
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