A week in a mission developer’s life

You know, I was wondering what a mission developer is actually doing all day long. I always thought: What a nice job. Mission developers hang around in dinner or lunch meetings all the time and otherwise don’t have much work to do. But then I realized, that Pr. Pamela seemed to be pretty busy, and I was wondering why. So I decided to stalk her for a week or so to find out what she is doing as our south campus pastor.

Last Sunday morning she got up, started the coffee maker and then sat down in front of her little prayer table in her home office. (That must have been around 9:00am) She stayed there for about half an hour. Then she got her coffee and spent about an hour reading and responding to e-mails and doing her day planning. I went and got my own breakfast and by the time I came back she was on her knees in the living room painting temporary signs for the south campus. When I asked her why she didn’t ask someone to help her with this she answered: “It’ll be faster this way. The signs need to be up as soon as possible, because an empty storefront doesn’t look so nice.”

After finishing the signs she and her husband went to South Lyon (it’s about a 30 minute drive) to put the signs up and check if the power had been turned on already. There was a note from a phone and internet provider as well. She made a couple of phone calls to let people know about this, and then she and her husband went over to the South Lyon Hotel for lunch. I expected this to be a relaxed lunch break but they actually spent the whole time discussing ideas and strategies for the new location.

Back home Pr. Pamela sat down with her laptop and started putting a diagram and notes about interior decoration and furnishing for the new site into a word document. She was busy with this pretty much the whole afternoon and lost track of the time. (Not very gifted in creating diagrams on a computer if you ask me!) I did my best to make her leave in time for the 5:30pm Evening Worship Team rehearsal but she was too occupied by her work to realize that she was running late. After the 7:00pm worship service at the Hartland  Campus a counseling meeting came up. Pr. Pamela left the church around 9:00pm.  I expected her to grab a glass of wine and sit down on the front porch together with her husband but she went straight to her home office to answer some more e-mails. When she finally did sit down on the porch I realized that this had been a 13 hour day for her (and even more for me –spying on her all day long!).

The next day (Monday) I was only glad to see that she really took her day off. Believe me: This doesn’t always happen!

Tuesday is supposed to be Pr. Pamela’s prayer and study day. But: After her prayer time and day planning in the morning she spent about two hours for e-mail conversation and phone calls: reminding the synod that she still needs the information how and where to apply for that startup money the  synod has available for renovation, following up on the contractor who had a look at the site in South Lyon, discussing logo ideas and setting up dates for meetings.

Then she finally got to do a little studying – sort of. She wants to get started with fundraising as soon as possible but to be honest: she isn’t very good at that, and figured she needed some more background information. So she spent the next four hours searching the internet and reading articles about fundraising: How to start and successfully execute a major fundraising campaign , putting together a presentation, planning and organization, research on major donors, gift grids, and how to get into contact and build a relationship with donors. I can’t actually remember her taking a lunch break. But I am sure she must have eaten something at some point. In the afternoon she finished the furnishing diagram, responded to a few more e-mails, and made some phone calls.

At 6:00pm she drove to South Lyon to show someone from All saints Hartland the new site. A dinner meeting followed at the South Lyon Hotel (again) to discuss the furnishing plan, worship, fundraising, renovation and strategy ideas. I think I remember hearing her car pulling into our driveway around 9:00pm or maybe 9:30pm but I am not a hundred percent sure about this. I was already in bed. (Teddy bears need their beauty sleep, you know!)

Believe it or not: On Wednesday she was meeting AGAIN with someone in South Lyon. Guess where! Yes: at the South Lyon Hotel. She actually had two meetings at the South Lyon Hotel that day. I won’t be surprised if they offered her a room the next time she shows up

But before she got to the meeting Pr. Pam went through her morning routine: half an hour of prayer and then taking care of e-mail correspondence before going over to the church for the staff meeting. After the staff meeting she went through Sunday’s orders of worship with our Director of Lay Ministries (DLM) who was supposed to lead worship the coming Sunday. Then she went to South Lyon to meet with a pastor from another congregation in our synod to discuss ways in which this congregation would be able to support us with our south campus ministry. The pastor offered help by trying to make some of his own parishioners attend the South Lyon Power & Light worship services as soon as they would start.

Back home Pr. Pam was on the phone with the contractor. She was discussing questions with him like: Does one big handicap accessible unisex bathroom work or does it have to be two separate bathrooms? Where can we put the coffee bar? Is the roof really leaking? What are we going to do about the ceiling? What is the estimated cost? What does the budget look like? When could we get started with the renovation?  

And then she spent the rest of the afternoon with going over the floor plan and putting together the next steps: Finding out what the exact requirements from the City of South Lyon are to get the permission to hold assemblies at the new site; finding out which repairs and renovations need to be done by the contractor, what can be done by us to save money; Finally, after several phone conversations and e-mails, I saw her taking a “break” and pondering about the logo ideas, and going over the responses from congregation members again.

And then - for about an hour -I watched her doing what she likes most besides being a pastor and spending time with her family: Playing a computer game !

Before starting the Big Questions in South Lyon that evening she took off for a counseling meeting. After the Big Questions she had another congregation member take a look at the new site and stored some painting utensils which were provided by a friendly supporter of the new mission. Pr. Pam was back home around 9:30pm and went straight back to her computer to try and schedule a meeting for the south campus team, and to answer a lot of questions which had come up about the progress at the south campus. She made it to the TV set around 10:30pm to watch a movie together with her husband.

Thursday morning she skipped the pastor’s breakfast which she usually attends from 8:30 to 10:00 and slept a little longer. Then she followed up on her e-mails, spent time in her office at the church from 10:30am to 1:30pm scheduling appointments and doing her planning for next week. She had a lunch break from 1:30pm to 2:00pm and then started writing her newsletter articles – and mine

 Every time I see her trying to get the articles on the blog it surprises me how much time this takes. Writing and publishing them takes her at least half a day if not more. The problem is the publishing because the software does funny things to the articles when she tries to save them on the blog. It’s like: copy and paste, delete, reformat, and copy and paste, delete, reformat, and copy and paste over and over again until it finally looks the way it’s supposed to

But shed didn’t get her articles on the blog that day. Her work on the newsletter articles was interrupted by – guess what – another meeting at the South Lyon Hotel. This one was about the budget and what to do in terms of fundraising.

But instead of finishing the newsletter articles after coming back home  at 6:40 pm (she got stuck in traffic on US-23) she decided to check on two members of our congregation and going through the “Mission Partners” materiel she brought back from the meeting. Then she was on the phone with our council president for what seemed to be forever, discussing the south campus “case” (it was actually only 45 minutes). Close to 8:00 pm she called it a work day and spent the rest of the evening with us.

Friday morning looked like this: prayer from 7:30 am to 8:00 am, e-mails from 8:00 am to 9:00 am, home office from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm: proofreading our DLM’s sermon notes. Then lunch break from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm.

In the afternoon she was doing some first sermon preparation on her own for the next worship service at the nursing home in South Lyon. She started this early with the sermon preparation because she knew she wouldn’t have much time for that while being in Chicago for the Mission Developer Training Conference. Her afternoon was pretty much filled with reading commentaries, pondering and praying over the bible text, taking some first notes, and working some more on the newsletter articles which she still didn’t manage to finish that day.

Saturday Pr. Pam spent the morning with reading and responding to e-mails, looking up and printing conference and flight information, writing some more on the newsletter articles (she really couldn’t decide which joke to pick!) and did her scheduling and planning for next week. Then she prepared a few last things for the conference. In the afternoon she got packed and headed down to Detroit Metro Airport. When she called after having checked in at the hotel she was pretty frustrated: Her flight had been delayed for almost three hours because of thunderstorms. They had shut the Detroit airport down due to lightning. When she finally arrived at the hotel it was almost 11.00 pm CT (12:00 pm ET). I was – of course - fast asleep already when she called (beauty sleep – remember?! This is the reason why I am such a good looking bear!)

She came back from the conference on Tuesday evening. (Too bad that she was in Chicago for so long - I would have loved to play computer games with her on Monday or spend the day in the park).

Her husband picked her up at the airport (the flight arrived on time this time), and drove her back to Hartland. But instead of driving her home he dropped her right in front of the church for another meeting. A group of people wanted to get the budget for South Lyon Power and Light straight. They also set a date for the first worship services at the south campus: September 21^st 2008!

But to be able to get started with worship at that date there are some things that need to be done very soon, to make sure that the renovation and repairs are finished by then. So the next steps for immediate action are: Getting first hand information from the city of South Lyon about the minimum requirements for the site; getting three bids; getting started with the renovation; finding a musician; getting affordable but nice (!) furniture; planning worship services; renovating; doing advertising at the Hartland Campus.

As you can see: I was right about all the meetings. But there were lots of phone and e-mail conversations going on as well. I think that took up most of her time. I also realized that this wasn’t even a very busy week (or actually 1 ½ weeks) for her. Usually there are other things like visitations, a wedding, wedding rehearsal, more sermon preparation, a coaching meeting, a synod meeting, and Vacation Bible School going on as well like it happened the week before.

And I am actually glad that she spends so much time in lunch and dinner meetings because I realized that she skips breakfast all the time. Can somebody please tell her that this isn’t a good thing? I have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Did you know that recently the European Soccer Championship – the Euro 2008 - took place?

My family and I are very passionate about soccer. I watched every game of this championship thanks to a TV channel which actually broadcasted ALL the games live! Yes, miracles do happen! 

While watching these soccer games I realized that God’s people are very much like soccer players. No kidding! 

A soccer team has 10 players on the field and one goalkeeper. But this doesn’t make the whole team. There are other players who function as substitutes when others get tired or are being injured. There are strategists who plan certain moves to make the play more successful. There are physicians and trainers who help to keep the body in good shape. You see that a soccer team has a lot of members with various important gifts. 

During the game the players try to reach the goal - to shoot the soccer ball into the goal. This is only possible if they work together as a team. It’s not just the person who actually scores. It’s the whole team that helps to reach this point. If it comes to counterattacks the goalie as well is not the only one trying to prevent the opponents to score. A whole defense is supposed to help the goalie (didn’t always work that well during the Euro 2008 for many of the teams though).  

But there are some negative aspects too. Players get fouled if they become too dangerous for their opponents. Sometimes they even get very mean. It’s not fair, it’s not appropriate, but it’s human. 

In the end it’s about showing the others that we are the best team.  

And of course soccer teams always try to recruit new players. The fun they have playing this game is contagious and many people are being attracted. 

Followers of Jesus are a team as well – God’s team, playing on the huge field of mission. Jesus as the coach is teaching us how to do it right, giving directions and advice, and leading by his own great example.  

Each soccer team has a team captain who is directing the team and keeping up the vision during the play. A pastor is leading a congregation in a similar way. Because sometimes it happens that like soccer players we disciples find ourselves offside. A player is in an offside position if she or he is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second last defender (the last defender usually is the goalie). This mostly happens when a player rushes for the goal without paying attention. Happens with God’s field players as well So the pastor makes sure that we don’t end up in an offside position with what we are doing as God’s people. 

God’s team has also people who work hard to keep the body of Christ – us - in good shape. There are people who try to make sure that we help people in need in the community, and that our needs get fed as well. Congregational life and social concerns teams for example are the physicians in God’s team. 

Like in a soccer game there is a need for defense in God’s team. We have to defend ourselves against everything that keeps us from scoring and from recruiting more members for our team. Selfishness, ignorance and laziness are some of the balls that could end up in our own goal if we don’t listen to our coach. Like in a soccer game the goalie could be any player of the team. But like in a soccer game it makes sense to have a specialist who is trained and well prepared for exactly this situation. I have been wondering who the goalies might be in God’s team: maybe the general managers, maybe the secretaries, maybe the council members, maybe the very gifted and committed volunteers, maybe pastors. I don’t know. I actually think it varies from congregation to congregation. And don’t forget: The goalie won’t be successful without the players who are the defense. 

Fouls happen among God’s people as well. We make mistakes, we fail to do what Jesus teaches us to do. We wish so much to be successful in what we are doing that sometimes the end justifies the means. 

And don’t forget about the fans! Fans are as much important as the team. I would even consider them being part of the team because with their passion the fans encourage and motivate the players. The fans support their team in a different but very effective way.You know, as a teddy bear I am not very good at playing soccer myself. A soccer ball is almost twice the size I am, so I would have a hard time scoring for my team. But is a lot of fun being a fan and I still can do my part by cheering them on. 

You see a soccer team and God’s people have a lot in common. There are differences though.  

When a soccer team loses too many games usually the coach is being fired. I can’t imagine that Jesus as our coach would ever get fired because we fail to be good players in the field of mission. And we do lose games. We are not perfect players, don’t have the perfect strategy, are not in perfect shape. We will always make mistakes. But our coach will still be our coach. He won’t give up on us but help us to try again instead. 

God’s people are also taught NOT to foul - not even for strategic reasons. I am convinced that we are more successful anyway if we keep playing fair. 

The biggest difference probably is that we don’t score for ourselves. We don’t score for our own fun or for our own benefit. We score for God and for the many people out there who are meant to join the team - first as fans and then as players. 

May the best team win!

And: We as God’s people ARE the best team!

 Yours Pelle