{"id":958,"date":"2013-02-01T12:36:21","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T17:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=958"},"modified":"2013-02-02T19:31:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-03T00:31:20","slug":"on-being-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/on-being-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"On Being Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has now been a little over seven months since I became the Pastor of Immaculate Conception Church.\u00a0 It has been a busy seven months.\u00a0 As I have written before we have a lot going on, ranging from our church with Sunday attendance over 700, a parish school, and two cemeteries.\u00a0 I’m the type of person who is involved in almost everything so I keep very busy.\u00a0 We are in the design stage for some upcoming building repairs on the church and office.\u00a0 We’ve recently started a strategic planning initiative for our parish school.\u00a0 I wrote recently <\/a>about the presentation <\/a>I did about my own faith journey.<\/p>\n

During Lent, I will be doing two more presentations.\u00a0 The first will be “Talking to God: A Conversation About Prayer” on Monday, February 25th at 7 p.m. in the parish hall.\u00a0 Here I will talk about how we enter into prayer and our attitude in prayer and ask do we listen to God in Prayer?\u00a0 The second talk will be “Talking About God: Sharing Our Faith” on Monday, March 18th at 7 p.m. in the parish hall.\u00a0 Here I will talk about how we find words to describe what God means to us so that we might share it with others.\u00a0 And soon I hope to record a short two-part video on the Sacrament of Reconciliation.<\/p>\n

It might seem to some that I am “tooting my own horn” about how much I am doing.\u00a0 If you know me well, then you would know I do all this not for my own good but to fulfill the ministry that I believe God has called me to.\u00a0 I hold myself to a high standard because I take seriously the words in the Book of Jeremiah about the bad shepherds and the story found in Ezekiel 3:17-21<\/a>.\u00a0 It is my role as a pastor and priest to help each person that I minister to deepen their relationship with God.<\/p>\n

My support for the school is all about helping the students to know God so they may fulfill his calling to them.\u00a0 When I do these presentations, it is to help the people know God more fully.\u00a0 When I write here on the blog, it is my attempt to help each of you see how our faith is relevant in our world today.\u00a0 It isn’t about me.\u00a0 It’s all about Jesus.<\/p>\n

I do all this knowing that I am not perfect.\u00a0 For instance, for my talk on prayer on February 25th, I don’t profess to be a great expert in prayer.\u00a0 When I did my first\u00a0presentation in January, people asked about prayer.\u00a0 So, I just hope to share what prayer means for me and hope the people who come can relate to\u00a0what I share to help find what works for them in prayer.\u00a0 What works for me doesn’t work for everyone.\u00a0 Ultimately, prayer is meant to\u00a0draw us into a deeper relationship with God.<\/p>\n

Prayer can be a struggle for many.\u00a0 People tell me that their prayers aren’t answered.\u00a0 I know part of my personal prayer as pastor is asking God to tell me what I’m supposed to be doing before I do it.\u00a0 I joke about how nice it would be if God sent an email each morning telling me exactly what to do.\u00a0 It doesn’t happen.\u00a0 Sometimes in prayer God does direct me beforehand.\u00a0 At other times, after prayer, I do my best, and I find later God gives me assurances that things are going the way he wants.\u00a0 An example of this lies in our Strategic Planning Committee for our school.\u00a0 It’s been in my mind since I arrived here to start\u00a0a strategic planning process.\u00a0 In December we finally formed the committee.\u00a0 For several months, there is a woman I was thinking about being on the committee.\u00a0 I wasn’t even sure why I wanted to ask her to be part of this except knowing her faith is important to her.\u00a0 When I finally asked her, she thought it was a great idea, she would love to be part of it, and then explained that in a job she had, a major part of it was strategic planning.\u00a0\u00a0I didn’t know exactly why I was asking her to be part of this.\u00a0 I listened to God\u00a0and God provided the name without my realizing it.\u00a0 God always provides what (or in this case – who) we need to do his will.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has now been a little over seven months since I became the Pastor of Immaculate Conception Church.\u00a0 It has been a busy seven months.\u00a0 As I have written before we have a lot going on, ranging from our church with Sunday attendance over 700, a parish school, and two cemeteries.\u00a0 I’m the type of …<\/p>\n

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