Prairie Pastors

Lauralea's dad is a pastor in a small prairie town, and coming back to visit her folks always grounds me. It get's me back to the values I esteemed when I followed God's call into the ministry.

These small town prairie pastors amaze me. Week by week, in the searing heat or frozen cold, they work hard to be more than just a town chaplain. They weekly pull off a Sunday morning service without musical resources, singing 1970's choruses on a circa 1970 overhead projector, (If they're lucky). In a small hot or cold church building that hasn't been filled since old man Fillintheblank died 8 years ago and the whole town showed up.

They get called to the hospital night and day because someone is in a crisis. Then they get to go to the care home to visit the elderly, (all the elderly,) because they are the only pastor in town.

They have to be at the local coffee shop at 10 am and around 2:30 pm and a final stop, if needed, at 8pm. This is so that they can connect with the people they feel called to reach with the Gospel of Good News. The ones who won't go to church, but they will chat at the local coffee hole. That's where you make some of your best and deepest contacts.

There are no mission boards in church, no committees to run things. While this can look good, it isn't, because these things are expected by those who attend. Someone has to plan the Sunday School program, the Fowl Supper, the outreach ideas, and that someone is, the pastor.

To shovel and sweep, to clean and lead singing, to preach and visit the sick, to marry the young who leave town, and bury the dead who will complain no longer.

And they do all this with little or no church budget.
They also do all this with a small personal income. So small that sometimes you have to do other things to help pay the bills. Deliver mail or drive a school bus. You grow a huge garden in the Hot summers, so that you will have extra food to get you through the winter.

There are no continuing education programs. There's no mileage or book fund to draw from. Not a lot of security at all. Still, they keep on.

They keep on, seeking to be faithful to the Call they feel in their belly. They are ready and willing to give their lives away doing this day by day. Being Christ to a small, often closed community. Introducing the spiritually homeless to a God who won't let them be homeless again, ever.

I always see God in this sacrifice. In the pain and tension of faithfulness to God, despite the circumstances, irregardless of the duty, these men and women of God continue on, pouring out their lives for the ones who often reject them, the ones they are called to love.

I see the love of God through their brokenness. And I am humbled by their sacrifice, this gift they offer up to God each week, each day, of obedience, of faithfulness.

and I head home again, grounded, centered, clearer, willing.