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Now there’s a great idea for our good pastors

By Alexander Carpenter
Now there’s a conference president who cares about the good things in life, such as his pastors.
Adventist News Network’s Elizabeth Lechleitner writes:
At least one conference in the Seventh-day
Adventist Church’s North American region has concluded that frazzled
pastors don’t make for successful ministry. That conference, spanning
the U.S. states of Iowa and Missouri, is encouraging pastors to trim
their sometimes 80-hour workweeks to a saner 45 to 55 hours.

[snip]
The region is inviting pastors to reprioritize their
lives and recast their roles within the church. “The day of working an
80-hour week must come to an end. The church does not own us,” [Dean] Coridan [president of the Iowa-Missouri conference]
tells ministers during workshop sessions, which he has led in the
region for 18 months.

 [snip]
Eddie Cabrera, who pastors three churches in the
Iowa-Missouri region and has reined in his workweek for two years, will
vouch for the value of ‘No.’
“I tell my church members, ‘Don’t call me on Sunday to ask how many
Sabbath school quarterlies you should order,’ Cabrera says. “If it’s an
emergency, yes, I’ll be there, but otherwise Sunday is family day.”

I appreciate the investment that Adventist pastors make in our church and the sacrifices they make for their beliefs and for the difficult task of mobilizing real live folks to care about the important things in life. Thanks pastors for all you do to better human life — and props to those of you who take the time to blog. Sharing your convictions online is a part of the Christians witness, in my biased opinion. And all pastors get a special dispensation to say whatever the hell they want as fast as they want to type it on the Spectrum Blog. Now get some sleep.

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