Connections in Ministry

I arrived this morning to sunny Atlanta, Georgia and made my way via MARTA to Columbia Theological Seminary. I checked in, moved into the room and headed off to eat lunch. I am rooming with Jay from Only Wonder Understands. I met Steven Blair, pastor at First Light Gardner, for lunch and we spent the day at the conference together.

One of several purposes of this gathering is to grow in relationship and friendships with others. This is a very valuable thing. I live less than 30 minutes away from Steven, but we hardly ever are able to spend time with each other. Recently, I have found it particularly necessary for me to be intentional about nurturing friendships. My experience thus far in ministry has been that it does take an intentional effort to maintain friendships that feed one's soul. What do you  think?

• Is it difficult for a pastor (or yourself) to have deep friendships?

• How important is it to maintain connection in ministry?

• Is it healthy to have close friends within the congregation that a pastor is serving?

I would love to hear what you think. More on Mainline Emergent/s later...