I was confronted by one of the assumptions that I make about life and church recently when reading the comments from my post on what to do with your hands during worship. I made the assumption that words for singing would be on a screen and you would not have to hold a hymnal. For better or worse, here are some other assumptions that I have made about life as a leader in the church.
- In worship, words can be projected.
- Church staff will all have email addresses.
- The pastor will have a direct phone line at the church.
- Broadband internet access will be available at the church and the parsonage.
- There will be some members in the congregation who will friend me on Facebook.
What do you think? What have I missed? Are these fair assumptions?
Rev. Andrew Conard 
2 replies on “Assumptions”
I think that your list works for JoCo but may not work in other areas. I think that assumptions like expectations are the things that tend to get us in a bit of trouble.. add church into the mix and things can get a little dicey. Let me explain:
About 11 years ago my heart was in a very dark place. My son was having troubles and I spoke to my pastor about it hoping he could help. Little happened that summer and I started resenting my pastor.. I expected him to follow-up with me.. I expected him to do something. Late that summer the Holy Spirit began to deal with me and asked me this question:
Why do you expect him to act when you have not communicated that expectation to him?
I began to realize that an expectation that is not communicated is unrealistic and foolish. I think that it is the same with assumptions.. we often assume and we are disappointed because others are working from a different set of assumptions.
Happy Monday Andrew!
I guess it really depends on the size of your church. I serve a two point charge in west-central Indiana. The previous few pastors had not even worked out of the church office, but rather made the home office the place where all church work was done. That ended the day we got here.
However, I still do a lot of work from home, because 1) the church office doesn’t have a computer; 2) the church office hasn’t been used for so long that there are membership books in there from the 1940’s (I wish I was kidding); 3)do you remember what a rotary phone looks like? Come to my church, and I’ll show you two.
Small churches are behind the curve. We don’t have the equipment to project the words. There’s no need for staff email because I am the staff. People aren’t familiar with Facebook around here (the average age of one congregation is seriously around 67).
Now, broadband internet in the parsonage – required by parsonage standards, or at least a dedicated phone line for dial up.
Assumptions aren’t bad, but they are shaped by the environment in which you find yourself. I was at a larger church before coming here, and I did have all those things. But the majority of churches in America will not.
Peace!