Back in the mists of time, when I started as a pastor, I had this dream that the role would be amazingly spiritual all the time. Don't get me wrong, there certainly were spiritual activities. Preparing sermons and teachings for the Sunday and Wednesday services and teaching bible studies at other times counts as spiritual. The rest of the activities, while generally needful and important, were undoubtedly less spiritual. On a good week, I would be about 20% spiritual activities, with the significant balance being the business of running a church and keeping the congregation out of jail. (Mostly kidding about the jail thing.)

Perhaps most people don't give this much thought, but a church is a business. Most are classified non-profit and tax-exempt, but even so, they are a business and must be run as such. Annual business meetings, board meetings, filings with appropriate state and federal departments, maintaining proper accounts and following non-profit organisation accounting practices. And don't forget the fundraising! We used bake sales, rummage sales and peanut brittle sales. Let me tell you, we made lots of peanut brittle! And it was good. We had people contacting us as soon as the weather started getting cold, asking when we were going to be selling our peanut brittle.

And then there’s the care and feeding of the congregation. This is the most challenging and variable part of the whole pastoring thing. You just never know what they’re going to ask or do. I've been asked advice on many topics, some of which I knew about and others I had to do some serious Internet searching to find answers for them. I have helped people put together budgets, obtain cars, organise weddings and funerals and so many other things. From early in my time as a pastor, I was often asked to assist with slaughtering animals. This was something that I had never done before, so with help from a good friend (Thanks Bill! You know which one you are. Goodness, I know so many Bill's and William's!) I learned, very much on the job, how to slaughter a variety of animals and then process them. Now, this is a useful life skill, but not one that I thought would accompany being a pastor.

Pastoring is nothing like you think it’s going to be and after talking to bible school graduates just in case it was different for them, no one trains you for what it's actually like. Perhaps this is a good thing, because if people knew what awaited them, I think that there would be a whole lot less people feeling called to pastoring. My respect for those who have pastored multiple churches is greatly increased, given that they know what to expect and they still do it anyway! Not going to lie, while it was an honour to be called to pastor by the Lord and I enjoyed most of it, I'm glad that my next chapter of ministry is about writing.