Carry a Mop

I am reminded of a recent church planting conference I was at (no, not that one), where a speaker talked about ministry and people. He said if you want to be involved in ministry, you better carry a mop and a bucket because there will be ... uh ... stuff all over the floor. (He did not use the word "stuff," nor the epithet that starts with the same letter, but since I do not want to be the next blog pinata I will not say what he said exactly. Email me if you are that desperate to know and can't figure it out. It was a very picturesque word that certainly drove home the point in a way that other words might not have.)

It has been said that ministry would be a good life if it weren't for the people. Of course, ministry wouldn't be if it weren't for the people.

I heard of a guy who was called to pastor a church and turned it down because it wasn't big enough for him to just study and preach. He was going to have to work with the people. My advice to him: Go dig ditches. The pastorate cannot stand people with that attitude. Fortunately, there aren't any churches that fit that description, especially that will hire a guy right out of seminary.

Ministry hurts. It involves a lot of tears, and pain, and upset stomachs. It involves watching people reap the consequences of their actions, or the actions of others. It involves total helplessness because your best scriptural advice won't change anything unless the person is willing to be changed. It will cause you to lose sleep (and not just because you are up late on Saturday night preparing your message for Sunday). It will cause you to throw up and sit up and wade through the mess. You cannot send them home with a verse and a pat on the back.

It will hurt because we have been called to love and serve broken people. We have been called to embrace the unlovely, to weep with the broken, to step in the messes that people leave on the floor, and to carry the mop to try to clean them up, often while the mess is still being made.

You have to be willing to take abuse and scorn. You have to have broad shoulders to carry the weight. You have to willing to sit and say nothing. And then to say the right thing. You have to be willing to invest in someone else, who probably looks like a bad investment.

So if you don't want to carry a mop and a bucket, then go sell cars, dig ditches, build widgets, or panhandle as a last resort. But please do not become a pastor.