self-care out the whazoo

Yesterday, we had one of our world famous (in our minds) young adult clergy lunches. In our area of the conference we have been slightly disjointed in getting something regularly going, but we definately recognize the importance of clergy fellowship, accountability, and networking.

It says a lot that we all looked at our watches and realized that three and a half hours had gone by without realizing it. We had amazingly fantastic pieces of pumpkin cheesecake. And we talked about everything from the Board of Ministry to church administrative assistants to how we motivate our members to move beyond the walls of the local church... and also personal stuff like family and boundaries and what not.

But we also are getting ready for our (hopefully) annual 37:5 retreat (the name of our conference young clergy gathering). Our big job was to decide on programming and we really decided that we need to focus on self care... but in the sense of actually sitting down and figuring out what our plans would be; how we would let our SPRC committees know; what are some ways that we currently practice and how can we encourage one another. Oh, and some good old fashioned financial planning. AND - we are looking into hiring a massage therapist for the afternoon.

Then today, I have my professional interview and self care came up again. My CS was right - I had listed all of the physical and emotional things I do for self-care, but I had completely left off spiritual self- care. As a pastor, that's kind of a "duh!" but then again we read/pray/worship as part of our jobs and so we really do need to intentionally set aside time to be with God in our personal lives as well. I'm re-committing myself to do the daily prayer from "A Guide to Prayer for All Christians" that was put out a while back by Ruben Job. AND - I'm counting on my young clergy group to keep me accountable. And I hope to do the same for them.