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FEATURE:
A Pastor's Life
February 9, 2001    Episode no. 424
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BOB ABERNETHY: A new study reports that most American clergy find their work deeply satisfying, and worth devoting their lives to. The clergy have often been described as suffering from low morale, because of low pay and long hours. But the study -- by Duke University Divinity School -- will report that seventy per cent of clergy have never considered leaving the ministry. Pastoral leaders from eighty denominations and faith groups participated. In suburban Chicago, Judy Valente looked into the life of one pastor, and found that life to be stressful but satisfying:

Pastor Melody Eastman.PASTOR MELODY EASTMAN (pastor): We didn't attend church at all when I was growing up. When I went to college, my neighbor in the dorm invited us to go to this church she had found. I walked in the door and it was like I had come home.

JUDY VALENTE: It is Sunday, just after dawn, Pastor Melody Eastman prepares for the 7:30 worship service -- the first of three she'll conduct today.

Pastor Eastman: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God be with you all.

VALENTE: A few words of parting. A dash for coffee, then it's on to the 8:30 service.

PASTOR EASTMAN: You're on, bud. You know what you're doing? Not a clue? Regular, straightforward service.

The amount of time it takes to plan one worship service would probably floor folks.

VALENTE: At this service, Eastman's husband Marty is a guitarist. Her son, Niles, plays the conga drums. Daughter Emlyn is in the pews.

PASTOR EASTMAN: Welcome on this Lord's Day, it's good to have you with us. You know, Jesus could be disturbingly devious when He had a mind to.

I find there is almost always a hook in the Scripture passage, something that's either a surprise or struggle with the text. That tends to be where I'll focus.

VALENTE: Women make up only about 14% of the ELCA's [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] nearly 18,000 ministers. Only 26 senior pastors are women.

STEVE MEYSING (associate pastor): The first woman to serve a congregation usually has a lot of ground to break and goes through a lot of trauma in that acceptance process.

Pastor Eastman in church.VALENTE: With the 8:30 service over, she rushes off to teach a religious education class for teens.

PASTOR EASTMAN: I've got to get to class now.

(To students): It is very important to know the Apostles' Creed, isn't it!

VALENTE: To liven up a lesson on the Apostles' Creed, she enlists the help of her son's fish and a dog named Jeraboam.

PASTOR EASTMAN (to dog): I need you to help me teach these fish. Have you got that? Jeraboam, the fish, honey, the fish.

VALENTE: With five minutes to spare before the next service, she jots a few notes to herself in her office.

PASTOR EASTMAN: Welcome on this Lord's Day. It's good to have you with us.

You have to learn how to juggle all kinds of things, and not all of them are your gift. Sometimes, you make mistakes. That's hard. You want to be good at everything, but you can't.

VALENTE: Finally, at 3:30 in the afternoon, some ten hours after starting her day, she arrives home. Her husband Marty, a computer programmer, is slowly remodeling their house.

PASTOR EASTMAN: Hey, hon.

MARTY EASTMAN (husband): Hey, dear.

PASTOR EASTMAN: I'm gonna go crash. By the way, I thought it went great today.

MR. EASTMAN: Oh, good.

PASTOR EASTMAN: Life is short ... read the funnies first.

VALENTE: After 14 years in ministry, Pastor Eastman earns a base salary of about $33,000 a year. The church also subsidizes her housing. Lutheran ministers are among the lowest paid in mainline churches. A minister starting out might earn as little as $25,000 a year.

While Sunday worship represents the core of pastoring, it is but a small portion of a minister's life. Today's pastors are more than counselors, preachers, and spiritual leaders. They have to be chief executive officers, accountants, and crisis managers. It's a constant battle to balance each role.

Add to that list, doubling as a maintenance engineer.

PASTOR EASTMAN: Here we have a case of a recurring ... concerns with the building. ... Those things come up just about every week -- almost everyday.

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VALENTE: Few areas absorb as much of her time and energy as church finances.

PASTOR EASTMAN: It surprised me how much I would need to answer about accounting. You know, there's a reason I didn't go into that [laughs]. Just a lot of detail work ... making sure you understand employment policies and federal guidelines and tax regulations.

MAN (at finance committee meeting): This year we're projecting to go in with a shortfall of $20,207.

Pastor Eastman with sick parishoner..VALENTE: A pastor must be able to shift at a moment's notice between administrative tasks and the tough emotional work of ministering. On this day, Eastman brings Communion to a man who suffers from a rare and debilitating disease.

MATT (parishoner): I lost six out of seven layers of skin.

PASTOR EASTMAN: God is holding on to you, and He's not letting go. God is even more stubborn than you are ... stubborn in grace.

PASTOR EASTMAN (with Matt): Being present to someone when you can't make it better. Sometimes all you can do is not run from the pain ... which to me is the epitome of embodying Christ.

PASTOR EASTMAN: There was a parishioner here when I started who was ill. Just at the moment, I realized that we would not hear another breath, I heard her husband -- they had celebrated 50 years of marriage -- I heard him singing, [sings] "Praise God from who all blessings flow." He could barely get it out. We all wept, wept and sang.

VALENTE: Every Tuesday, Eastman meets with other Lutheran pastors.

PASTOR EASTMAN: Let's just start ... around the room and seeing how everybody is.

FIRST MINISTER: [I'm] having trouble sleeping at night because all these decisions are going around in your head.

PASTOR EASTMAN: When pastors get together, there's a lot of pain, hurt, and struggle. Congregations are like family systems, and you can get dysfunctional patterns that set up.

VALENTE: With nearly non-stop meetings, there often isn't time enough for prayer.

PASTOR EASTMAN: I don't know any pastor whose prayer life is as disciplined as they'd like. I'd like to think I can come into my office and have prayer time; that never happens.

I sing and that becomes really good prayer time for me that I do find feeds me.

VALENTE: Ministry wasn't Eastman's first choice. She had planned to become a journalist. But a job in campus ministry convinced her to attend seminary. Her mother was less than thrilled.

PASTOR EASTMAN: She called back and said, "your father and I are extremely disappointed in you." I think that was one of the worst days of my life. When I was ordained, they just didn't come. One of the best days of my life was the first time my parents came and took Communion from me, and I cried the rest of that morning. It meant so much to me.

Pastor Eastman in her office.VALENTE: When Eastman's daytime appointments are completed, her evening duties begin -- like this pre-marriage counseling session. It is also the hour to return calls.

PASTOR EASTMAN: Sometimes, you have to hold the phone away from your ear, because they're just yelling and it's really loud.

VALENTE: In between bites of a rapidly cooling TV dinner, she checks in at home.

PASTOR EASTMAN: Hey darling, you're home. I'm not going to be home for dinner. Did I warn you about that? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot.

EMLYN EASTMAN (daughter): We don't see her that often, She's always running off to meetings.

MR. EASTMAN: You do have to get used to sharing your spouse. It's almost as much a marriage with the church as a job with the church.

VALENTE: The family tries to make the most of the time they can be together.

PASTOR EASTMAN: My feet were hurting so bad by the time I got through this day.

There are times where ... I cannot do one more thing. I can't talk to one more person who needs something. I'm done. But every day I feel blessed that I'm in the right place. Trusting in God's promise that if God has called me, then God will give me whatever it is I need to do whatever it is God wants me to do.

VALENTE: For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Judy Valente in Wheaton, Illinois.

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Resources

Related Links:

Duke University Divinity School: Pulpit & Pew: Research on Pastoral Leadership

St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church
Listen to past sermons by Pastor Melody Eastman at this site.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

The Troxel TENS Foundation
Established to aid those suffering from Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis Syndrome (TENS) and fund medical research to prevent the disease and its resulting complications.









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