Exploring Possibilities in Ministry
By Mary Huycke.
The sticky-note taped to my computer reads, “Stop. Look out the window. Take 3 deep breaths. Roll your shoulders.” Right now my days are full, and the work seems constant. I no sooner finish one meeting and I’m preparing for another. Even on the days when my calendar looks wide open, emails flood in. This little yellow note is a real help, but it’s not enough. I find—or to be more honest, I make—very little time in the day to step back and reflect on what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and where God is in all of it. Maybe some of your days are like that, too.
For me it feels like driving on the interstate through the mountains near where I live. I might notice the beauty of a particular moment, but then it’s in the rearview mirror and gone, and I’m on to thinking about the driver crowding my lane and how bad the Seattle traffic is. I arrive without remembering anything of what happened along the way. While my sticky-note micro-breaks across my workday—along with strong boundaries—help me maintain some sense of wellness, it’s regular sessions of Reflective Pastoral Supervision (RPS) that have been a game-changer both for my sense of well-being and my practice of ministry.
My reflective supervisor is trained in processes that help me reflect in creative ways on my experiences, emotions, challenges, and commitments in my ministry. We look at how my work is impacting others…and how it’s impacting me. I meet with her monthly for a deep-dive exploration of some aspect of my ministry practice that I’d value getting some insight into. It might be navigating the various expectations at play in a situation or exploring the dynamics of an encounter that felt a bit off. This month I explored ways I might support the learning and growth of someone I’m mentoring. I decide what I want to explore, and my reflective supervisor and I then figure out how to approach the topic in a way that can surface assumptions, spur new lines of thinking, and generate new and helpful insights. We listen for God’s voice in the here-and-now of the session and for the movement of the Spirit in the there-and-then of my ministry setting.
Often I start a session saying something like, ‘I don’t really have anything big to look at today, just this little thing’…and then I am floored at the insights that arise from taking the time to dig deeply into that ‘little thing.’ Sessions feel both prayerful and playful. My supervisor isn’t a managerial supervisor with oversight and institutional responsibilities; she’s a trained and certified professional who is committed to my safe and effective practice for the sake of those I’m called to serve.
Because of the time we spend together each month, I am a better practitioner. And I feel secure knowing that someone is keeping an eye out on my safety and well-being. I only wish I’d known about reflective pastoral supervision when I was beginning in ministry rather than discovering it near the end. What a gift it would have been to have a collegial space to reflect on my call and my developing practice, to have a place to bring my “this is what I’m planning to do’s” and have someone help me explore both the wisdom and the risks of those plans, to help me explore my power when all I felt was vulnerable, and to keep reminding me of the God that was stronger than my mistakes and bigger than my fears.
