The life of a pastor

I have been hanging around with a lot of pastors lately and have come to the realization that no matter what you learn in seminary we are all people.  And most importantly people will all see things differently.  For example...

1.  All churches should sell their parsonages.  Nobody wants to live in them.  Not true, just because a majority of people would like to own their own home I would not sell your parsonage tomorrow.  We wanted a parsonage.  We just got done with seminary, are in debt with school loans up to our eyeballs, and aren't sure it will be an investment to own a home in a small town when you don't have an idea how long you will stay.  So, if I could offer advice to  interim pastors and synod staffs, don't tell everyone to sell their parsonage.  Wait until they see what their candidate of choice wants and be open to changes.  Also, with this being said, maybe we need to have more dialog with churches to help them see how the triangle of parsonages work...parsonage, family, and church family.  More pastors might want to live in a parsonage if they felt free to do more things to improve it, for example, paint, planting, being able to call their own repair person if they don't have heat or water.  

2.  Pastors should work hard on keeping their day off a "day off".  That's great, but in reality it doesn't work (mostly in single pastor congregations).  In my opinion some pastors spend so much time protecting their day off that they end up causing more stress than actually just changing the day.  I'm glad we don't stick to my husbands "day off".  I've had more fun visiting friends and hanging out on other days when we knew Friday wouldn't work.  Also, a lot of people don't get to keep their days off.  When I worked retail, my manager had to spend a lot of her "days off" in the office.  Either somebody called in sick or she had to much to do.  Pastors aren't the only ones who don't always get their days off.  

3.  Pastors should be able to separate themselves from the job.  Really, why?  Because something in your personal life isn't acceptable if you're a Pastor?  Don't we tell people on Sunday to go out after church and share the light of Christ?  Why should that be different for a pastor?  When you leave the house even if you're just going to the grocery store, you should still be sharing the light of Christ.  I'm sure it's hard to always feel like you're on the job, but we're always on the job when we're Christians.  

4.  "What a great way to minister".  My husband got told this after he went ice fishing with some members of our congregation.  We kind of laughed because my husband actually wanted to go ice fishing and had asked to go sometime.  I feel that if you are sharing the love of Christ all the time, every conversation you have is ministry.  We can't separate those two.  

I realize I didn't take all the classes so most people might disagree with these thoughts and I also realize that in a year I might look back and say "What was I thinking?".  Right now it's how I feel.