Fitting Ministry into the Family
Steven McKinley
Long before God called me to be a pastor, God has called me to be a responsible and loving human being.
— Steven McKinley I was a young pastor, recently called to serve as solo pastor of a medium-sized congregation that had grown "stale." I threw myself wholeheartedly into the challenge, using all my skills and energy to lead the congregation into a lively commitment. I was also a young father. Our first-born daughter was about 2 years old at the time. I do not remember the exact circumstances. I only remember that it was a typically busy time in the life of the congregation. I attended meetings late into the night and returned to the office early in the morning. The parsonage was only a sidewalk's width away from the church, so most days I came home for lunch. One day at lunch, my wife reported to me a question our daughter had asked that morning. "Does Daddy ever come home and sleep with you any more?" By the time I would get home evenings, our 2 year old was asleep. When she awoke the next morning, I was already back to the office. In her beautiful innocence, she wondered if I ever came home for the night. In recent years, "family values" have become a major political topic. Though we might not agree on the definition of family values or on which political program bests supports them, we pastors tend to agree that the American family today is in crisis. We see it in the people we serve: in marriages breaking up, in children rebelling, in teenage suicide, in families torn apart by busyness. I have decided that if I'm going to decry the sorry state of the modern family, I had better first start with myself. Though I've been tempted to think otherwise, workaholism is no more commendable in the parish pastor than it is in a rising ...
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