Since most if not all of the ministerial staff at our church work on Sundays, we usually are off on Fridays.
However, each minister rotates serving as "on-site" minister each Friday.
This is different from our "on-call" minister who is available to respond to ministry/family/Benevolence/medical, etc.. emergencies.
(If you are thoroughly confused, fret not - for the sake of this post, it really does not matter!)
I had the joy of being on-site yesterday.
I can't speak for other ministers and what they get to deal with when they are on site, but you would have thought yesterday was Friday the 13th instead of next Friday!
I had to respond to two uniquely different phone calls and situations.
SITUATION #1
A lady calls from out of state concerned about her son who has moved to Nashville and has no place to stay. She wants to know if he can park his car in our parking lot and sleep overnight in his car in our lot! There is so much more to this story, but WOW! I took all her information, passed it along to our Benevolence Ministry, and hopefully they will be able to offer some kind of assistance to this young man and relieve his mother's anxiety.
SITUATION #2
A man calls to tell me he accidentally broke a kerosine lamp sitting next to their family Bible, and now the Bible is ruined - soaked and smells aweful. He ask me what he should do with the Bible? He told me they can't destroy it or throw it away or burn it - because it is sacred. So.....what do you do in this situation? WOW #2...
I told him I would ask around for advice and counsel, and I would call him back on Monday. In the meantime, I suggested he wrap the Bible in plastic, seal it, and place it in his garage until I get back to him with whatever "official" counsel I can offer!
Ministry is completely crazy sometimes - that's all I have to say about that.
