I have been a community minister within my own congregation for the last six
months. Prior to that I worked as a principal of several schools and have been a
university lecturer with mangerial and counselling loads as well as teaching
ones.

On the face of it my previous jobs were very similar to the ministry. There
are however soem significant differences which I have become aware of.

The first is the lack of regular daily collegiality with folk in the
congregation. I am very fortunate that I am ministering to a marvellous group of
long established friends who chose me to pastor them. However during the week I
feel the lack of the kind of collegiality that one finds in most work places, the
regular formal and informal meetings, the talks in the tea room which keep the
real business going and which serve many personal needs. I see a real need to
create that supportive and enriching culture within my congegation, not only for
my own sake.

The second is the problem of home being inescapably a work site. It’s hard to
find ways around this, but we do need to create physcial, mental and emotional
boundaries here.

The third is the old temptation to try to do it all oneself. I’m having to
relearn the need to roll work back on to others and not to do a job just because
it won’t get done otherwise. This is a factor even though we have a delegated
team structure. The baby boomer members of our congregation just have very little
time in the week to think creatively and constructively about church affairs.
Their lives as professionals and parenst are just so demanding.

Then there is the capacity for small issues to become raging bushfires,
churches seem to have a special penchant for making the minister an Aunt Sally in
these kinds of things. We can’t afford to own other peoples negativity and small
mindedness.

Finally, I have found a definite spiritual agenda behind many of the
pressures. In this new role I have become much more aware of a spiritual warfare
than I ever knew in my previous work, even though many of the tasks wre almost
identical. The struggles in doing the job have become much more tangibly focussed
as ones aginst the forces of darkness.

Howard Groome
Community Minister
Port Adelaide Uniting Church