The Long Way Around in Pastoral Ministry

Some things take a long time. to accomplish.

Most pastoral ministry is like that.

In a climactic episode of Dr. Who, the Doctor travels, quite literally and metaphorically to the end of the universe in a quest to find and revive his sweet friend, Clara whom he has lost to curse of death. When he arrives at the dying place where all things are dying, he meets a little boy and he tells him to go to the city, find someone important, and tell them he has arrived and that he has come the long way.

The great "time-lord," time traveler, "fixer," doctor, and, sometimes, Christ-figure, who can leap through time is his own unique way, could only save Clara one way --- he had to travel through the eons the long way and the hard way.

That was the most powerful and spiritual Dr. Who I have ever seen and it will stay with me for a long time.

Lent is about God doing things the hard way and taking the long way to redeem.

It trickles down to us to invite us to eliminate the shortcuts in our lives and we seek to be redemptive and reconciling forces in the world. Some journeys cannot be taken the short way.

During Lent or at any time, we are called upon to offer painstaking service in certain areas. While some things show rapid progress and some jobs have a clear beginning and ending within a reasonable amount of time, some items on our life agendas take years or even decades.

Pablo Casals, was a world renowned cellist. When he was 95, he was asked, “Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?”

And Mr. Casals answered, “Because I think I'm making progress.”

He lived another two years.

Progress. It is all we can truly measure because we cannot know our destination date.

If you could graph your life up to this point, where would you put the dots to indicate key events? How did they effect the upward and downward trajectories?

Progress is tempered by inevitable regress before the next surge of progress and the upward movement is never a straight line. But, keep at it.

You invest time in people over the long journey of your life and their lives. You experience, with them, major events and passages. some are joyful, some are heartbreaking, All are times when your ministry of presence was a contributing factor in their growth.

It happens with people and it happens with organizations and the constant is your patient perseverance.

That is a lifetime of pastoral ministry.

May you know the joy of pastoring people over an entire generation or multiple generations. Grow together.

The long way is sometimes threading a needle with meticulous care. Sometimes it is enduring the heat of the day Often, it is long nights of discouragement and long days of labor.

It is the long way around.

When it is called for, take it, not matter how many lifetimes it take. It will be worth it.

And when you come to the end of the world, you will find someone very important and report to them, "I came the long way around."