Hats

It is sometimes amazing how many hats I get to wear each week (one of the things I really like ... variety).  As a pastor those hats can be almost anything.

I was reminded of these hats the first week I was in pastoral ministry.  Believe it or not, my first task as the pastor of a small Kentucky church was to get a cat out of a tree.  Maybe God was trying to teach me a lesson in humility.  I hope it worked because we are the love justice, do mercy and walk in humility with God.

This has been a humbling week.  Counselor, financial planner, cook, grandfather, father, preacher, pastor, husband, mover, backpack blesser, CFO, graphic designer and Sunday school teacher ... all hats I have worn.  It is all part of life when you are the only pastor (with lots of help from JK) at a 380 member congregation.  I think the key to sanity and "keeping it between the lines" lies in two things.  The first thing is what my friend Jennifer shared in church this morning ... "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding [check it out in Proverbs]."  Without God's power, wisdom and provision I would get nothing worthwhile accomplished.  The second key for me is to remember not to take myself too seriously.  The weekly experience of having people tell me about their revelations from the Holy Spirit (sometimes in direct contradiction to one another), people telling me that their solutions to life are more practical than God's solutions, people asking if God will forgive them for what they are about to do and people who are so caught up in our fallen world that they don't even see God's blessings passing by are all temptations to play the experience card or the knowledge card or the seminary card ... and they would all be mistakes that would shut down discussion, giving me comfort but distancing myself from the people I have been sent to serve.  Jesus put it best (paraphrased) "Leaders in the world lord over those they lead but it will not be this way for you [His followers].  For the greatest among you will be those that become servants."

Hey ... if it's good enough for Jesus it should be good enough for me!  Pastor Randy