In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)
It's the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul and the lessons are all about pastoral leadership. Appropriate, perhaps, that I just attended a (Momentum) workshop about church leadership. One of the interesting things that Judy pointed out there was that conflict is absolutely necessary for church leadership, and that one should actually "mine" for conflict. Conflict is where the growing edges and creativity are. So one important metric of group effectiveness is its capacity to tolerate the anxiety produced by conflict. I think a lot of clergy get themselves into trouble by avoiding and then occasionally reacting to conflict.
This is a pretty obvious observation is make. Most people will tell you this. But taking to the next level--application--is much trickier. The proverb I hear a lot in church leadership circles is "you have pick which ditches to die in." Meaning that while conflict is good, it takes resources to engage and you can't do it all (at least, not simultaneously). Perhaps this is why Paul says we need to have "patience in teaching." Anybody who has taught anyone anything knows something about that.
So for me "Full Ministry" has something to do with that active and awkward-making moment when you, the priest, choose a path that makes people a bit uncomfortable. The alternative, making everyone happy, is neither holy nor really possible. Comfortable is for the easy chair you use to watch football and nap on Sunday afternoon. We are called to intentionally make ourselves uncomfortable!
-t
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