Ministerial Busy Work (Question #6)

Question #6: Which o f the responsibilities and duties do you think is busy work? Why would the General Conference think this item helped the ministry of Jesus Christ?

This is a tough question. It kind of sticks you in a rock and a hard place. If you say something is busy work as an Ordained Elder, do you deserve to be ordained since you will tend not to live up to the responsibilities outlined in the Discipline? But it is a question I promised I'd answer and I won't cop out and not answer it truthfully. So here we go but please remember this is my view and not the view of my denomination, local church, simply me.

At first glance I would say that they are all important. To remove one from this list makes a ministry weak. Having said that though there are some items on this list that do seem like busy work as you do them. They all seem to fall in the category of Order.

While it is extremely important “to be the administrative officer of the local church” doing this job leads to mundane and ‘busy work’. I really don’t like meeting for the sake of meeting, but to have some of the committees stay on task that is what is required. I am not a fan of paper work and always feel that we do too much of it and at times get lost in it. Yet I understand that to be apart of a larger denomination and in all its method it is necessary.

Looking deeper, there is some busy work in other areas too. In the area of Word and Ecclesial acts we are told to visit in the homes of the church and the community, especially among the sick, aged, imprisoned, and others in need. While I agree to all those listed in the especially section, I don’t like visiting people who regularly come to church. The old idea that the minister needs to visit everyone’s home regularly is a dying idea. Yet, do not let the home-bound, sick, imprisoned, and others in need go unseen.

Truthfully I cannot see any busy work in the Sacraments section unless the minister is the one in charge of getting things set up for them. The same goes for service.

Outside these though there is some other busy work in ministry, like all the Christmas parties, the trips to the office store, cleaning up after worship, long talks with members of the elevator club (the elevator club are members of your congregation that you NEVER want to be stuck in an elevator with because of their tendency to talk and talk and talk and talk). But since these items are not on the list of responsibilities I guess I cannot complain about them in this post.

Does anyone else have ideas of where there is busy work within Responsibilities and Duties of Elders? Remember that your answers will be kept confidential between me and the other person who reads this blog :)