As we head into winter, that means I’ll be shoveling snow and monitoring the heating systems at the church.
Does it shock you to read that as a pastor I do that kind of work around the church? Many of us were taught that such tasks were not our jobs. I can remember a professor telling us in class: “You are not there to turn on the lights. Your calling is far more important than that.” Should we as pastors be doing things like cleaning the bathrooms, working on the sound system, snow blowing, and changing light bulbs?
There are four problems that you can run into if you are doing these kinds of little jobs:
- You may get so caught up in it that you fail to live out your true calling.
- People will get the impression that it is your job and expect you to be the janitor and maintenance person.
- Since you are doing these little jobs, it can excuse the church members from doing the work. After all, they are paying you and you only work on Sundays, right?
- You can set up a bad precedent for the next pastor who will be expected to do all those things that you have been doing.
I heard these things in seminary and when I graduated I was nervous to do little jobs around the church. I think these concerns are valid and important. Over time, however, I started to rethink this. There are some important reasons to do these little jobs:
- Sometimes it is faster. Sometimes it is harder to delegate than to simply do it yourself. It can save you time to just take care of something now.
- Fewer people can do the little jobs. In a lot of smaller and aging churches, there are few people who are physically capable or have the time to get things.
- You are modeling ministry. It is hard to ask people to do things with credibility if you are not willing to do things around the church. If you are not pulling your weight, then don’t expect others to pull their weight.
- You are modeling humility. The attitude that some jobs are below your calling can be and is often seen by church people as arrogance. By doing some of the little things, you are modeling the heart for service of Jesus.
Here is my process: If it takes less than five minutes, I just do it. If there is no one else to do it and it has to get done by a certain time then I do it. I don’t do these things all the time or immediately when they need to be done so that I don’t create an expectation that they are my job. If someone else is doing a job or is willing then I don’t touch that job and I don’t try to influence how they do it unless it is absolutely necessary.
Please understand that the four warnings about not doing these kinds of jobs are still valid. You can do these little jobs at the expense of the work that only you can do. You can easily set bad habits and troubling expectations. The challenge is to find the balance so you can get the important stuff done. You need to do some things so that nothing is beneath you; but you need to know your priorities well enough that you never do little things at the expense of important things.
Jordan Rimmer ’12 is the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in New Brighton, Pa. He earned his Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and is currently working on getting his Doctor of Ministry. Before moving to Pittsburgh, he was the director of outreach and youth ministries at Glenwood Methodist Church in Erie, Pa. He is a husband and father of four children. Jordan blogs at jordanrimmer.com and tweets at @jrimmer21. His sermons are available for download on iTunes or at http://jordanrimmer.podbean.com.