“Just relax!” I’ve heard that more times than I can count by well-meaning people trying to help me bring my life into balance. They even send Scriptures like Psalm 127:2 as an encouragement, "It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night... God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest."
Juggling work responsibilities, family relationships, church activities, social interactions, and “me” time seems impossible. The tyranny of the urgent calls loudly and persistently. As pastors in small towns, many of us find ourselves bi-vocational. Sometimes this is by choice, but many times by necessity. In years past as a young pastor, I fought the very idea of it because I wanted to devote my entire energy and time to the church. I now understand it differently.
One of the jobs I had “in-between” pastoral ministry assignments was working at a funeral home. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share with people during one of the most devastating times in their life. Assisting them in the love of Christ and helping them in their grief was rewarding. But before I knew it, God had directed me on to a new ministry assignment in rural Vermont. So off I happily went, thinking this chapter in my life at a funeral home had been just another temporary provision of God to sustain me in a time of need.
One of the challenges in pastoring in a small town is acceptance in the community. If you’re not “from here” it can take some time and focused energy to become part of your community. I remember being told many years ago in my first ministry assignment in Vermont that there were three categories of people living here…Vermonters (born and lived all their life in Vermont), Flatlanders (born in New England and now living in Vermont), and Foreigners (born anywhere else and now living in Vermont). I was reminded periodically that I was a Flatlander, usually when my thoughts or ministry ideas were in conflict with theirs. Finding myself back in Vermont after many years, I knew I had to pay attention to this reality and potential obstacle in ministry.
So right away I began to pray and ask God for ministry outside of my church where I could get involved in my community and serve them. Almost immediately an opening on the Board of Directors of the local pregnancy resource center opened up and I was invited to serve. Then, I learned that a couple of local hospitals were looking for volunteer chaplain support from local clergy, so I signed up. The local evangelical pastors’ group was poised to unite organizationally for more effective ministry together and I was able to support them with logistics and focus. What a blessing! But God wasn’t done, and the next opportunity surprised me.
A parishioner approached me after Sunday service and asked if I was interested in helping out at a local funeral home. He knew my background and thought of me when the funeral director mentioned they needed some occasional help. After a brief conversation with my wife and longer conversation with God, I agreed to meet the funeral director. What I thought would be a job interview was just a logistics conversation about when can you start and how much do you want to work. God had opened another avenue of service to the community for me. And what a ministry it is!
At the funeral home I deal with the dead so I can minister to the living. Always being “on call” means middle of the night calls to go to a home to remove the body of a loved one. It means traveling to a local nursing facility to remove the body of someone’s grandmother or grandfather or to a hospital for a sudden or unexpected death. It includes meeting and greeting people during calling hours. It also means being asked to officiate at funerals and graveside services for people who are without a church family or any religious affiliation. It means honoring people in death with dignity and respect, recognizing that God created them, loved them, and sent His Son Jesus to die for their sins. It means comforting people in their loss, helping them celebrate their loved one, and pointing them to the Heavenly Father, who has provided life eternal through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of this, many people in my community know me as the person who graciously dealt with their loved one in death before they know that I pastor a local church.
Through this, here are a few things God has been teaching me about ministry in small towns.
Ministry takes many forms. Expand your horizons and be open to unconventional ways to minister in your community. Watch for community needs and ask God if He wants you to help meet it.
God never wastes anything in our lives, not even the “in-between” times. If you faithfully submit yourself to the Lord and His service, He will use it for your growth and His glory. Don’t waste the in-between time in your life with anger or disappointment or preoccupation with your next ministry assignment. Be present where God has placed you and serve Him there.
Work ahead, especially in sermon preparation, as much as possible. This allows you to have some “margins” of time and energy for unconventional ministry. Be disciplined in the use of your time expecting that God may have something in store for your freed up time.
Look for and pray expectantly for ways to reach into your community relationally. Resist the temptation to focus solely upon your congregation and its ministries. Don’t allow your schedule to fill up so much that you have no time or energy left to minister to your community.
As you find unexpected and unusual ministry in your small town, my hope and prayer for you is the Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Colossian believers “…that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1:10-12)
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Gary DeHaas
Gary is the pastor at Windham Community Chapel in Dummerston Vermont. Prior to this he has served churches in New York, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Michigan, New Jersey and Windsor Vermont. He has a passion for church revitalization and intentional disciplemaking. Gary and his wife Deby have four children and five grandchildren.