Ministries of Interruptions

I've been reading some great stuff around the blogosphere this week, and I thought I'd recommend some of it. Di McCullough has a great post on vocational discernment and the institutional church. She yearns to study (and teach!) liturgy. Yes, that sounds great.

Yesterday at a luncheon designed to kick off a Public Speaking Series, one of our students gave a speech, and she urged us to do what we love (she switched from law school to culinary school), and I thought, hmm. Am I doing what I love? Some days yes. Many days, even if the work I do for pay isn't what I love, I'm doing some church work or writing work that is what I love. If I'm doing what I love but not getting paid, am I on track?

How many days a work week should I expect to be doing what I love for pay? Some drudgery is normal in every job, I know. But at what point is the job more drudgery than anything else?

Or maybe I'm just feeling frazzled from too many interruptions. There's a post on RevGalBlogPals where many women chime in to talk about how to deal with a "ministry of interruptions," as one poster calls it. If I thought of my work as a ministry of interruptions, would I be less irritated at the interruptions?

Erik Ullestad has great thoughts on the modern youth ministry here. He has an earlier post on the death of Luther League here. Modern youth ministries certainly have a tougher time than I do. I can't imagine how to compete with the frantic busyness of the modern young person. Just hearing about the schedules of my friends who have children wears me out.

But at least I'm not the Archbishop of Canterbury, who now must worry about breakaway Anglican churches realigning with Rome. Go here to read a great analysis by Beth Adams. I hadn't thought of the racism angle until I read her thoughts.

Ah, the process of reformation continues--and the reaction against reform continues too.

I have my outfit ready for Reformation Sunday (all red), and I'll be assisting with communion. If you're in the South Florida area, our Reformation service is at 10 am on Sunday--come to Trinity Lutheran Church, 7150 Pines Boulevard, Pembroke Pines, FL (that's the southeast corner of Pines and 72nd Avenue, across from Broward College). Go here to see our church's website.