People Essay (Tyler)

It is a difficult thing to involve people in what is essentially a people-less task. Administrative tasks may deal with people indirectly, but it is hardly ever directly involved with focusing directly on people. As I was thinking about how to make people more involved in the administrative side of ministry, a couple of ideas came to mind. One of my ideas was practical and one of my ideas was more philosophical. The practical idea involved the minister doing the administrative task in some social setting. Now, I don't mean going to a party and pulling out your laptop to “get some work done”. But I would suggest a pastor on his office hours doing his administrative paper-work at a coffee shop. Some of the greatest ministry I have ever seen has been at a coffee shop just sitting there reading or typing. If we could get this type of contact in a simple coffee shop interaction while completing administrative work, I think we are killing two birds with one stone. You are ministering to people, and you are getting work done. I'm not sure how truly impactive this could be to people, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. I'm sure there are better ways and more creative ways, but doing administrative work in a coffee shop is a start. Secondly, my philosophical idea deals with doing administrative work as a way to create and facilitate the focus back on people. If it wasn't for administrative work, then it would difficult for some of the church programs that deal solely on the development and growth of people with one another to succeed. You need to sometimes just crank away at a project that you know will be successful at bringing people together. It may seem ironic that you must get away from people in order to complete this task, but sometimes solitude is necessary in a situation like this. So, while there is no actual human contact, the work that you are doing will create human contact that is improved because of the time you spend in administrative work. It's almost like agreeing to go through a lonely time to create a lot less lonely times.