pat loughery

Another gem from “The Way of the Heart: Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry” (Henri J. M. Nouwen) :

I would like to stress the importance of silence in the ways a minister organizes his own life and that of others. In a society in which entertainment and distraction are such important preoccupatoins, ministers are also tempted to join the ranks of those who consider it their primary task to keep other people busy…

But our task is the opposite of distraction. Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often hidden event of God’s active presence in their lives. Hence, the question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the oice of God who speaks in silence.

– Nouwen, WAY, 63.

I find this hard reality at the center of much of my time in recent years. In planting our church, we initially tried offering a bunch of different connecting and gathering points to our community, but quickly realized that the way we had been coached to do this would lead to burnout and a failed family. So we decided to only do to evening items – a small group and a marriage workshop, and ask that people only attend one or the other, and instead go have dinner with their neighbors. That’s probably why we didn’t get enough momentum to sustain the church on its own, but it was the right choice for us.

My own inclination is to find ways to concentrate on God’s active presence in my own life, and to help others around me to discover that. That takes room to breathe, space to reflect, the risk of boredom or nothing happening or a long-considered answer to a thought-provoking question.