This past week has been full and exciting as I am now a half-time pastor and half-time chaplain for the Ministry to Seafarers here in Montreal. It's with a bit of trepidation that I take on this new chapter for the next 8 months. There is always the concern for my family as both positions are ministry oriented and if you are in ministry, you don't just shut off because you're not physically present; you stay engaged and now I'm engaged in two places.
But even in this first week, one major difference has jumped out at me: as a pastor, mostly people seek me out for conversations about God, about faith and spirituality and with all that goes on in ministry in a church, I find I don't engage in much intentional going out and inviting others into a relationship with God. However, as a chaplain I'm the one doing the seeking out, going to the seafarers to engage them in conversations about God, faith and spirituality. The end goal is the same: that people come to know God and are invited to accept Jesus' invitation to follow him, yet the way it's done is completely different in approach. It's also reminded me that we call our congregations to be like chaplains, to seek out others to make disciples of others as they walk the road of discipleship themselves. It's not easy and I've already gained a huge appreciation for other chaplains and for what I've been encouraging my congregation to do.
Yet it is also not as frightening as I first thought. My identity is as a child of God and just like I invite others into my home for a meal, or to a movie, I find that making disciples is mostly about extending an invitation to come along my own walk with God. This makes it much less intimidating and oriented to building a relationship and planting seeds rather than feeling it's all on me. There will be many opportunities to also water these seeds and seeds other chaplains or people have planted by sharing my story of faith and the Biblical stories of Jesus and God's relationship with humanity, and finally, I pray that I might also see harvest times. Yet it is the Holy Spirit doing that, I'm here, and so are you, to do the farming. May your planting, watering and harvesting be blessed greatly.
Hi Jacob, cool that you are a chaplain at the Seafarers Centre. I look forward to hearing more about your experiences.
ReplyDeleteInteresting observation that as a pastor you are often on the receiving end and as chaplain you need to take the initiative. I would think that even as a chaplain, backed by the name of a missionary organization it would still be different than for the person in the pew who is known to his peers as an average guy or simply as a "church goer". It's not always easy to start the conversation without coming across as judgemental. - Fred
ReplyDeleteFred-you're probably right,I'm realizing the longer I'm in ministry, the easier it is to forget the challenges of being in a regular job or situation and then being called to be a disciple maker while being a disciple. It's causing me to think about what the role of the pastor is, and what it might be, in order to actually help and equip the average person to have faith conversations.
ReplyDeleteI'm not avery outgoing person, and I find it rather daunting to start a discussion about faith with strangers. I feel that chaplains have an advantage in that once people know you're in that line of work they expect you to talk about that stuff.
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