July 26 Update from Eliana Maxim

Dear friends, 

A pastor friend of mine called recently, seeking to gain understanding from a disastrous session meeting where discussion over a cancelled vacation Bible school devolved into a shouting match between elders and ultimately angry words about my friend’s leadership and preaching style. Another worried pastor shared with me that the fragile balance they had been able to maintain in their purple church was becoming frayed more and more as political rhetoric ramped up for upcoming elections. 

No one goes into ministry believing it will be all about languorously long afternoons of intense scripture study, unending revelatory prayer sessions or life altering sermons. Ministry ends up dealing with the messiness and unpredictability of life; from clogged toilets to grief-stricken congregants to deciphering a church balance sheet to planning sermon series. And more. A more that includes coming to the realization that you will never please everyone and you will never ever be able to do it all. 

The last few years have added another layer of tension to this peculiar vocation. 

A deeply divisive country, a global pandemic, increased violence, and social unrest have all highlighted a growing mistrust and fear among our churches across the country and denominational borders. And in their anxiety, many have turned in anger against their pastoral leaders, impatient with their inability to “fix” things and make everything right again. And so we arrive at what many are calling “The Great Clergy Burnout”. Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein addresses this phenomenon in her latest blog.  

In the middle of summer, as we look towards the fall when we’re anticipating another resurgence of covid infections, more fallout from Supreme Court decisions and January 6 hearings, and the anxiety around doing church well (i.e., getting folks to come back to worship, balancing budgets, being relevant) how can we turn our frustration with one another into collaboration, and suspicion of each other’s motives into community building?  

We are not unique at facing these challenges. The early church had to be reminded repeatedly to work together as in Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another…” and again in 1Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 

Grounded in this Biblical wisdom, I invite us also to keep in mind the calling of the church as expressed in the Book of Order that states “The Church is to be a community of hope… a community of love… a community of witness pointing beyond itself through word and work to the good news of God’s transforming grace in Christ Jesus its Lord.” (F-1.0301) May we turn our faces towards one another convinced we will encounter the sacred in one another as we together discern God’s will for the church, and work side by side to that end.  

Paz,

Rev. Eliana Maxim
Co-Executive Presbyter