Flexibility

A few days I posted that I had completed my time as the Transitional Pastor of a church I had served for the past two years. The day after my last Sunday at the church the new pastor's mother passed away. I was asked to return for another Sunday which I was happy to do.

If there is anything I have learned in 35+ years of ministry is the need to be flexible. Ministry is full of serendipity events that we cannot prepare for. The most careful plan can go out the window with one phone call. One volunteer who doesn't show up can quickly change how an event will be managed. I've always been willing to do just about anything to make something happen.

I was with a pastor and the lay leaders of his church one night for a meeting. After the meeting one of the lay leaders asked the pastor if he could cover for him at an upcoming event he was not going to be able to attend. The pastor became angry at the request and refused saying he had told the church he would not do what he was being asked to do. Personally, I would have had no problem filling in for the lay leader if I was the pastor. I felt the request was not out of line.

Both the refusal and the level of anger the pastor showed surprised me. Later that evening the lay leader called me saying this was frequently the attitude the pastor demonstrated any time he was asked to do something that was outside his official job description. This was a fairly healthy smaller church where many people wore numerous hats. People were used to doing whatever it took to see that ministry happened, and this pastor's refusal to be flexible was new to them. I was not surprised that his ministry in that church was short-lived.

No pastor should allow people to regularly dump their work on him or her, but that was not the case in this situation. I had known this lay leader a long time, and he was a faithful worker in that church. This pastor would have earned the respect of this leader if he had just shown a little flexibility to step up in this time of need. Instead, he lost a lot of respect from many in the leadership of that church by his refusal.

I was glad to have been able to fill the pulpit for the new pastor in a time of need, and it was great to return back to a church I have loved serving for the past two years.