In the last 2 weeks, 2 people from my local area asked me “where have you been? it’s been ages since we have seen you?” One of the guys who said this to me even asked “have we done something to offend you?”

I found these remarks both an encouragement and a rebuke… mostly felt the latter though.

Encouragement: locals not at church miss me when I am not out and about in the community
Rebuke: where have I been if I haven’t been out and about in the community?

Good question… and I agree with them. I haven’t been out and about in the community as much as I previously did last year.

Upon reflection I’ve forgotton to take heed of my own advice, ‘If I was a Community Pastor…’

• Pray for my community.
• Have time flexible to just to hang about and be open for conversations.
• Have coffee with unbelieving locals, locally.
• Be interested in the things that locals are putting on.
• Be a friend to those who are lonely… pop-in-and-say-hello ministry.
• Say hello to strangers.
• Get involved in community activities/meetings.
• Go gospelling

These have dropped from my list of priorities because:

• Change in routine from last year; lack of preparation for strong routine in 2011.
• Not putting ‘hang time’ in my calendar
• Letting administration and maintenance of ministries dominate my time.
• Impatient in seeing fruit of my labours.
• And in my favour, this year I have been trying to invest more in believers at church and so mobilse them to do some of the ‘community pastoring’ work with me, rather than going out on my own. This takes time and will hopefully bear fruit later.

Solutions:

1. Plan.

2. Prioritize.

3. Patience.

4. Prayer.