Four Things to Do When You are a Pastor Taking a Sick Day

Like many people, I do not like going to the doctor.  I have friends who are doctors and nurses, chaplains and hospital staff, but the idea of expending the little energy I have when I am sick making the trip often does not seem worthwhile.  That means that usually by the time I do go in – aside from annual physicals or taking my children – I really need to go in!  My doctors know I am a pastor, and they often give me that “why didn't you come before this point” look, and I nod in agreement.

 

Getting to know doctors, nurses, and hospital staff in my congregation, as well as those I get to work with doing volunteer chaplaincy in the community, has given me a great appreciation for the work they do.  Although we tend to glamorize being in the medical profession, my experience with most people in the medical profession is that they are far from glamour seekers.  In fact, the nature of their work is very much like what good pastoral care does: tending to those in need, being present at times of hardship or discomfort, and doing their best to meet the needs of diverse groups of people from all walks of life, often with little formal “thanks” thrown in.  In short, doctors, nurses, and medical staff are always expected to be at their best, even though they most often see the rest of us at our worse. 

So, this past week, after being infected with what has now become strep throat (oh, if only I had gone in before it got this bad!), I sit here pondering ways to be effective under what the doctor said should be at least 24 hours of rest and recovery in virtual isolation (so as not to infect my family or my “flock”).  What are some things that a pastor on a sick day can do?  Here are some ideas that spring to mind. 

1. Obey the doctors!  If we as pastoral leaders cannot take direction from those who are seeking to give us direction for our own well-being, our credibility will likely suffer.  Being able to say, “I have so much to do that I have to ‘work through it’” may sound valiant, but in some cases it simply demonstrates a lack of humility. By following the advice of doctors and nurses, pastors can model the truth that we all need to take advice and to heed trusted wisdom every now and then.  Also, it allows me to demonstrate to all of the other hardworking people in my congregation that I am sympathetic when they are out sick or cannot accomplish all they wish to in a week due to doctor’s orders.

2. Pray as you rest!  What a perfect excuse to add minutes and even hours to my prayer time!  I have been ordered by a medical professional after a thorough examination to “take it easy” until I am no longer contagious and/or until signs of recovery begin to appear.  While I am sitting or lying here, I can call to mind members of my family, members of my congregation, those who were in the waiting room with me (in my case this week it was two little girls and their mom, all of whom were sick), and the doctors and nurses themselves.  This concentrated prayer time reminds me that we are all in the hands of the Great Physician.

3. A little extra conversation with the family.  Throughout a sick day, it is likely that family members will come in to check on us or at least to pick up cups and dishes, etc.  When this happens, and without overly exposing them to your illness, taking a moment to remind them of how special they are can turn a sick day into a time of refreshing for them and for you.

4. Administrative work.  Most all pastors get behind in some aspect of administration, whether it be calendar planning or ancillary paperwork.  Bringing a folder or a laptop into the recovery area can allow us to make use of those times when, although sick, we have napped and have been medicated all we can stand at the moment!  Of course, do not overwork during these times.  That will only aggravate the illness and may even prolong recovery time.  However, a little bit of administrative work to kill the time and to calm our minds to the place of moving back to a place of rest can actually be helpful and fruitful.

A few hundred years ago, it was not uncommon for ministers to also have some basic medical training in seminary.  In fact, John Wesley even wrote an introductory medical textbook, called Primitive Physick, to serve as a tool for new ministers who were seeking to provide comprehensive care at a time when only the very wealthy had access to doctors.  Of course, with the breakthroughs in medical science, pastors are no longer consistently placed in the dual role of shepherd and medical doctor.  That means that we rely upon doctors, nurses, and hospital staff as part of community care – even part of pastoral care.  Often we conveniently forget their vital role in the overall health of the community until we are on a hospital visit, or until we pastors become patients.  Maybe reflecting on this truth while I’m recovering will encourage me to see these wonderfully trained folks earlier in the process in the future!

   

The Ups and Downs of the Church

“How baffling you are, oh Church, and yet how I love you! How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe you! I would like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence. You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand what sanctity is. I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false, and yet I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful. How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms.

No, I cannot free myself from you, because I am you, though not completely. And besides, where would I go? Would I establish another? I would not be able to establish it without the same faults, for they are the same faults I carry in me. And if I did establish another, it would be my Church, not the Church of Christ. I am old enough to know that I am no better than anyone else.” ~ Carlo Carretto

The words from the late Christian writer Carol Caretto quoted above were shared with me and a group of other pastors by my district superintendent, Dr. Jeren Rowell.  I am thankful for this quote and will no doubt be revisiting it many times in years to come, Lord willing.  It so beautifully captures the ups and downs of walking this journey with Christ in the midst of His fellowship called the Church.  It has caused me to remember several things that I believe every Christian – especially those of us who by vocation serve the church as one of its ministers – confronts on a daily basis.  These thoughts guide us when thinking about and participating in the fellowship of believers that meet and work together on a consistent basis all over the world to help bring about God’s Kingdom: God’s ideals for the way the world should be.

1. God knows how flawed we and the people who serve with us are, and He is not afraid of that.  The older I get it seems the better I become at assessing needs and analyzing faults.  These are good skills to have when you are working with a diverse group of people.  However, it can easily lead to a type of closed off judgmentalism that magnifies faults and needs so greatly that very little light and hope can break through.  Turning that reflection and analysis inward from time to time (certainly more often than I do) provides the kind of balance the Carretto brings forth in his beautiful description.  It is true that, like Carretto, we can all say, “The same faults I carry around in me” are the ones I see in God’s Church.  The remedy for this?  The overwhelming love and forgiveness that Jesus provides.  God does not assemble unbroken people to demonstrate His ability to pick talent!  Instead, God assembles broken people in order to demonstrate His ability to bring beauty out of the ashes (Isaiah 61:3) and change the world. 

2. This Church belongs to Jesus, and not to me.  That means I cannot simply make it what I want it to be.  Instead, I am called to let Jesus work through the Church and shape me in a way that I fit into His plans.  When I stop trying to possess the Church and instead start following the Creator of the Church, I find more avenues for hope, for joy, and for redemptive love.

3. I cannot disconnect my relationship with Christ from a relationship with the Church.  My relationship with Christ is indeed personal in one sense. But to remove that personal relationship from the Church is something that is foreign to the Bible.  The Bible assumes Community, because God intentionally creates a community in which His people may unite, grow, share, and serve.  To try and be a Christian without a connection to the Church is like trying to be married without an actual spouse: it is just theory, and it is ultimately just fantasy.  The fact is, as flawed and hurtful as some church people have been and can be, I need the relationships that the Church provides and the resources it offers, or else I am apt to drift like a spiritual orphan. Or, at worst, I am prone to severe forms of idolatry that would pull me away from this God who calls me to eternal life and fellowship with Him.

4. Where else would I go?  Carretto says this at the end of his poetic description and ode to the Church.  He is simply echoing Peter’s words in the New Testament when Jesus, after being forsaken and left by many who thought His teachings were “too difficult” (John 6:66), turned to His disciples and asked, “Do you wish to leave me, too?” (John 6:67)  Peter answers, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”  In other words: “There is no place else for us to go.”  That sweet desperation that comes in the hard times when we feel we cannot face the difficult challenge ahead is what God uses to keep us close to Him and close to His people, the Church.  Sometimes the call of God seems too hard.  At other times, the hard-heartedness of people seems to dark and foreboding.  At those times, when we start looking for the exit sign, we remember the sweet voice of Jesus Himself, who promises not only forgiveness, but also peace.  And we are able to say, “Despite the work that needs to be done in this House, there is a place for me to do this work.”

One of the first presentations I was asked to give was near the beginning of my ministry.  It was to a group of pastors in the Pacific Northwest.  It was entitled, “Why I Still Love the Church.”  I only remember bits and pieces of it.  I remember talking about the “bride of Christ” and how we would do well to avoid insulting or attacking Jesus’ bride (the Church).  I threw in a story about how protective I felt (and still feel) toward my own bride and how for that very reason I would not wish to risk disconnecting from Jesus by insulting or offending His bride.  

Several pastors, including those much more seasoned than I was, spoke well of it and encouraged me.  However, I can look back now and say that at that time, my “defense” of the Church was mostly theory with very little experience with the darker side of ministering to believers who, like me, were quite flawed and imperfect.  I still love the Church today, of course.  It’s just that now, I think my love for the Church is more genuine and intimate.  I began work as a senior pastor a month after I married my lovely wife.  I loved her then, and I could tell you many reasons why.  But now, like my love for the Church, my love for my wife is more intimate, more mature, and more real that it was in those early days. 

This is true for the same reasons.  My wife and I have been through struggles together that we could not have even imagined at the beginning.  We have learned things about each other that we had no way of knowing in those early days.  We have suffered together and rejoiced together – deeply.  And when I say I love her now, I know so much better what I am talking about, and I mean it even more sincerely. 

And so it is with the Church.  I have seen its darkest side and some of its most difficult and challenging people.  But I have seen outpourings of love and grace and joy that I could not have imagined this side of heaven.  And God is still good.  And His Church is still precious.  Where else would I go?