“Off the page” How the
Holy Spirit works?
I am amazed these two
paragraphs from “The Ministry of the Whole Church” written in the spring of
1955 continue to influence approaching age 93. Writing the paper set the course. Granted the words have
been modified but the direction remains. Now I would add the words “intention”
or “intentional” or “intend” or “tend.” Tendare in Latin means to care.
Pastoral Care is nurtured by these words and I was nurtured by the givenness of
doing the paper as part of my seminary experience. The words covering 68 years became
intentional.
This paper is not a
conscious attempt to correlate three years of theological education. I thought
about such an endeavor. I came to the same conclusion as Doc
in John Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday, “I want to take every thing I have
seen and thought and learned and reduce them and relate them and refine them
until I have something of meaning, something of use, and I can’t seem to do
it.” This paper is an attempt at a perspective or an agenda for beginning the
ministry with the vision of the ministry of the total parish. I say it is an
attempt, for it is merely an experimental beginning. I hold to the validity of
the endeavor, but I do not hold with any great validity the conclusions reached
in this endeavor. The paper is Baptismal in character, “more is begun than
complete.” Nor is the conclusion that it will come off in a few months. This is
the beginning of thinking about a perspective for ministry; the perspective
will be changing as it is in dialogue with the actual situation and the will of
God.
In mechanical drawing
every perspective has a point at which all the lines converge. Likewise in the
perspective of the ministry of the whole parish, all the lines converge on our
Christian Faith: the revelations of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. Such a
perspective has a paradoxical nature. One aspect of this paradox is that it may
be only the clergyman who is explicitly aware of this perspective of the total
ministry of the parish, and yet this perspective does not depend entirely upon
him. This perspective is the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people
in the community. God is the center of the perspective: Judging, purifying, and
guiding the work through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Such a
relationship is a dialogue between God and his people. The clergyman is a
prayerful listener who helps people see the meetings of God and man. (Opening
paragraphs to “The Ministry of the Whole Church.”)
The vantage point in a
three dimensional drawing is always off the page.
Eleven years into the ministry, and my second full year as a certified
hospital chaplain of the College of Chaplains, the mechanical drawing
perspective became a conscious way of working. And Mavareen’s request to do
something about the Auxiliary rule, “do not speak to patients when you take the
notions cart around” was off the page. In other words, “Don’t get into a
conversation with a patient. Sell the candy bar and leave.” Her saying that
patients want to talk reminded me of the Scripture verse “out of Egypt have I
called my son” because “off the page” and “out of Egypt” became the words describing our way of working, the
words for the way we listened.
Beginning with the
Befrienders, we added the Grief Resource Group when we determined most patients
were sharing some kind of grief story with the Befrienders. In our discussion
we discerned the need for a Grief Recovery Group. To bring everyone on board we
sponsored community workshops. Then a Befriender, on vacation, visited St. Christopher’s
Hospice in London. Upon returning she observed we had all the elements of
hospice except the medical part. We invited doctors to the Resource group and
Hospice of Scott County came into being. To grow continuity in care between
Churches and Hospital, the Umbrella for Caring with lay visitors from the
churches began. More recently, I can report the Grief Recovery Group of Genesis
Hospital is expanding. The CEO’s own experience with the loss of a child is
making a difference.
My revised paper would
now read, instead of “The ministry of the Whole Church,” “The Ministry of the
Whole Community.”
An article from the
Harvard Business Review intrigued me, “How to Build a Culture of Originality.”
The approach seems to be of the same mindset as working “off the page.” Still
working “off the page” I am happy to report people are joining me in the latest
“intentional” effort. We have a Healthy Reads book discussion group where a
former Befriender said, “My niece gave me a book on Being Mortal.” That became
our first discussion book. It led to a panel discussion at St. John Vianney and
a presentation to the parish nurses at Genesis for CEU credits. We are now
reading Dietrick Bonhoefer’s The Cost of Discipleship. Come join us.
Enjoy the Harvard Business Review article from
their internet web site. Learn how to grow your Aha’s!
Shalom,
Marlin, BCC
Founder of the
Befrienders, now celebrating 50 years of discoveries and story listening.
I look forward to
reading your comments. Just click on comments to receive a box to write your
comments. To be continued.
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