As someone who has made a decision to take a "sabbatical" from full time pastoral ministry while my kids are very young, I found this article of interest. The author writes that this choice..."is a clearer, more definite answer to the issue of pastor-motherhood. To keep home and family at home, separate from work and public life sets a compelling and straight-forward boundary for the contemporary family." That's me, compelling and straight-forward. Ha! But, she goes on to say, she doesn't want to put her ministry on hold. She also goes on to demand many things that any woman who has a career and children want...society to allow us space to balance these demands.
It wasn't that I wanted to put my pastoral ministry on hold. I've had to explain to many a (sorry, but true, male) colleague that I haven't lost my sense of Call but rather it is just, to be honest, what I felt God was calling me to do at that time and place. It didn't feel better for 'me' and my goals, but it felt right for some larger picture. It was a leap of faith like any we take in life. But then, I tend to divide my life into compartments--Right now I do X, The next phase will be Y. And am chaotic enough in my own being that the idea of balancing all the demands of those people made me break out in hives. (babies, husband, family, and THEN on top of that...congregational members...uff da.)
Because I've never been a mother who had a call in a church, the idea of being judged by a congregation on my parenting as well as my preaching added a new dimension of...what, fear, annoyance, to the mix. I tend to think that the church is called to be counter cultural. We speak of 'family time' and valuing the spiritual gifts of everyone. We lament that families don't have time for church, we decry the state of parent /child relationships in today's fast paced world. But I wonder, as the author does, if we do any better in supporting clergy in their personal lives. If we did we could show everyone a different way to live. Which is part of what we are suppose to be about, right?
Those of you out there...how are we doing?
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