Mike's musings

More ministry thoughts

(backposting) Getting the "what I did today" section out of the way, I made it to the 0800 at St Mary's, Rempstone, then we went swimming with the girls, took them to the park, tired them out, ate supper, and drove back home! Straight to sleep from both of them!

On the ministry side, Gary commented on the last post:

Maybe we need to think through what it means being a priest in a workplace. I have opportunities to meet people in my work that I'd never meet in a stipendiary role - IT people, counter staff, loads of people of other faiths and from other nationalities - it's a different sphere of action, and the role is maybe harder to define and much more nuanced, but it's there.

I think there are two sides here. One is being a "Minister in Secular Employment" - an MSE, where you're licensed partly to your work, and will have an agreement - maybe contractual - with your employer. The other is being a minister who's also employed. That's what I'll be, and, from memory, what Gary will be as well. You have to decide how lightly to wear the collar, as it were. Some might actually wear a dog collar: for me, this will be rare, though there will be occasions - such as going out for a meal - when I might wear one to give people the chance to discuss it, and have a laugh (which will, indubitably, lead to discussion and then pastoral work...). Others may let it be know that they're ordained, but not let it out much, and others will have the opportunity to make a fairly big deal of it. And the same, of course, can go for lay people (except about wearing the collar, in most cases!).

I'm a little conflicted about how often I will wear a collar, to be honest. I think I'll try both ways on planes, and see how people react. Same for hotel bars, etc.. It's going to be interesting.

Over lunch, I had a supervision with Keith, and we talked a lot about where my ministry's going. How prophetic will it be? He says that he thinks of me as having an evangelical ministry - though he thinks what I'll refer to as "the E-word" is better applied to me as an adjective than a noun - and I'm beginning to see things this way, too.

Labels: ministry, work