Pastor/Minister Support Group
 

I thought it might be a cool idea to have a designated thread where pastors/ministers can interact with one another. Perhaps you need prayer for your ministry or some encouragement. Maybe you have a victory you'd like to share. If nothing else, you can make a post introducing yourself and sharing as much information you are comfortable sharing.

My name is Lee. I'm getting ready to celebrate five years as the senior minister here at Granville Center Church of Christ. We're a very small congregation in rural Pennsylvania about an hour north of Williamsport.

This could be handy.

I realize the CGR community is much smaller that it has been in the past but I also know that there are still some of us in ministry. Why not lift one another up?

Could use some prayer if anyone sees this and thinks about it.

Got a lot going on in my personal life and in my ministry. Honestly considering bowing out of the vocational thing.

For sure, Lee.

I'll jump on board with this as well. I'm working full-time for a small missionary agency and spend a lot of time working on my own from home or abroad. If any full-time guys want to chat privately send a message.

And I'll keep you in prayer Lee.

Was blessed by a local ministry that I volunteer with. God has a way of doing things like that exactly when you need it.

I am not a pastor, but maybe I could qualify for this thread.

By God's grace and under the blessing of my spiritual father, I have been called to establish a chapter of Orthodox Christian Fellowship at my university and serve as its President. There are 4-5 other folks who are members of our executive team, one of whom is my godmother (i.e. one of my mentors and also one of my closest and dearest friends - so close that she, her husband and her children are like family). She's a grad student, a part-time homeschooling mother of three and a priest's wife, the latter of which usually entails sharing a huge chunk of her husband's ministry, and in Laura's case that's definitely true. She's also recovering from a spinal injury.

But everyone else is super short of time (and really, I'm short of time too), and apart from a few occasions where I've had the opportunity to hang out with my godmother (whom I've nominated as Vice-President) and brainstorm ideas with her, none of the others have done hardly any work. We're also having difficulty finding a priest who is willing to supervise our club, since every Orthodox priest in this city is either ridiculously busy with their parish and their secular job (most Orthodox clergy in North America are 'tentmaker priests' - i.e. have secular employment in addition to their serving in the holy presbyterate) or not interested in or not equipped with the temperament or set of skills and interests to do university ministry. My own priest lives too far away and is too busy with our parish and his secular job, and the two priests he trusts to recommend, from the two Greek churches closest to us, haven't responded to my emails, likely because my email got buried under a bajillion other emails.

I'm extremely frustrated with this state of affairs. We had an event (our first event, actually) that was a brief service for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross. Three other people came. I think that's a good turnout for a first event, but I was frustrated that more people didn't come.

I realized soon after that I needed to bring my attitude to the sacrament of confession: my frustration had more to do with being worried that people weren't taking me seriously as a leader than it was with the glory of God and the good of His Church.

I also feel like, because there is no one else who is willing to step up and take point for this, it is not being led by a person who is, frankly, qualified. Laura would be a much better President, and is much more godly. O. (real name truncated because I don't want to bring their names to a public forum, Laura I think has been mentioned on my blog before) is a priest's daughter and has developed much better prayer habits and just general peaceableness and habits of godliness than I, just from being raised in an Orthodox home and the fear of the Lord from her infancy. Same with R. and L.

So here I am, the least qualified of all and the most sinful of all, called to lead for want of no one else willing or able to do so. This gnaws at me sometimes, like our group would fall apart if I could no longer lead it.

Anyway, that's my story for now.

This isn't meant just for those in vocational ministry. You are more than welcome.


Your situation does sound extremely frustrating. Keep praying and keep at it.

It may not be my place to post in this thread, but given my experience and knowing that many of my own friends are ministers, it's nice to see a place for such leaders to gather and talk. A lot of pastors end up on their own with little to no support and burn out from stress rather quickly. I'm glad to see you started this thread.

I know that I often feel like I am in this all alone. It's nice to be able to vent to others who understand.

This sounds very frustrating. But, I can't help but he excited for you, even during such difficult moments!

We had our second prayer service, three other people came (same as last time but there were different people) and afterwards we sat and talked and fellowshipped for an hour or so.

Great success!

Busy week.

Revival this weekend AND a wedding that I mistakenly booked at the same time.