Pastorate As Locus Of Change

To me, my view of "Pastorate" is "locus point of change";
Few other places in the world have scope quite near its range;
Church did not come and stay with us for these two thousand years,
Without an impact on some lives – addressing toil and tears.

Please don't confuse what's going on with its potential place
Within our small communities throughout the human race;
The Pope said once, "Within my job, I take a longer view –
The Church has ups and downs all right, and here is what I do –

"Church cycles up and then goes down ’bout each two hundred years;
It's in a down, not just for us – for all, it now appears;
It will go up, it can't be said, ‘this is our finest hour’
But it won't change all by itself, God needs our human power.

"Not Popes and Bishops, Pastors, Priests, but folks like you and me,
Who choose to walk the way of Christ, that's how a change we'll see;
Like at the first when impact hit (like Bruchko and the ants),
There was an impact on some folks whose pain gave way to dance.

"So that is what will come again, and come it will through folks;
Until that time I laugh along in this terrestrial joke;
I don't believe that things will change till we say, ’nuff’s enough;
For change is made within our group when things become too tough."

Until that time there's lots of ways to hasten on that day;
Through incremental steps we walk, till logic has its way:
The first step's when we're first aware that something else is here,
Until that point we help folks see relief that is so near.

So, open first their blinded eyes, like Plato and the Cave –
The shadows on the walls to them seem real, but cannot save;
Such life is pain, not nearly what in freedom they can feel,
If they once taste of heaven's fruit, and know it's pleasure's real.

Then, even when they see for real, don't push them to commit;
If you do that, they'll back right off, and rightly, I'll admit.
Folks need a chance to play with things, to try on their new clothes,
Before they shift to learning truth some other person knows.

So, play with them, like dress-up clothes within a tickle trunk;
If you push hard you'll wreck things up, stay solo as a monk;
Like Jesus said, "Be fishermen", – play out the line with glee,
Until they spit and ask of it, "Is this the food I need?"

So that's two stages, quite distinct, stage one awakes their mind;
Stage two is playing with it all – it's gentle, fun, and kind.
For folks can't play if they can't see how it relates to them,
So first of all, help them to see to what they should attend.

It's lots of fun – live out your life within their painful world;
Be not destroyed, but let it wash on down the sewer's swirl;
"How can you laugh and joke right now, midst all this troubled pain?"
They'll ask of you as they are crushed by life's events again.

That's good, not bad – ’till once they've seen not all are crushed by life,
Nor are all people saddened by what's felt by them as strife,
Your laughter grates upon their souls – like Bruchko ’fore the ants;
As we're not hampered by their fears, we live our lives in dance.

They do not try it on for size way back here at the first;
It's more "awareness-raising-time" – "Hey guys, I do not thirst!"
We can't try on what we don't see, all issues must be met
Within our pre-awareness stage before we take the step.

There's five more steps to where you are, we'll get there soon enough;
But just a note re: Pastorates – about what makes it tough:
As you address a group of folks, each at a different stage,
You must address quite different needs as you their lives engage.

That's good, not bad – each cannot hear the rest of what you speak,
(Like "Jubilee" – they sighed and stretched, unlike effect on me);
They need their time to work each stage, so feed them where they live,
And then make sure the other folks are fed with food you give.

If all walked through each stage of change lock-step, you'd have a mess;
You couldn't cope with all those folks, you need to deal with less;
A farmer with two dozen bins all glistening in the sun,
Is ready for the harvest time – that's not how Churches run.

Once issues of each stage are met, folks shift to next themselves;
So answer needs within each step, address their living hells;
They cannot shift until each stage has all its questions met,
So feed them where they are and then they'll move to second step.

Just picture it – assembly line – with new folks coming in,
And stepping through from death to life and shucking off their sin;
But at the other end of things "Transcendence" is the stage,
When folks can hardly bring to mind frustration, pain, and rage.

I could go on, and on, and on, about initial work –
You get the point – awareness raise, your joyful life assert;
Until they "see", they can't be "shown", perhaps it's not their time
To step onto conveyor belt, and move on up the line.

So "walking ’round" in healthful ways addresses where they cry,
You'll drive them nuts as laughter rings and they, despondent, sigh;
Bring others on – make them aware of needs back at the first,
For folks at other stages can exhibit quench-ed thirst.

Folks say, "It takes five times to hear and then respond to Love",
But they don't see each stage has needs, so push, and prod, and shove.
So tell them how: "Fill up the needs each stage presents in change,
And folks will grow, and solid be – your process rearrange."

The government lets taxes shift from roads to funding Church,
So long as it fulfills its task, continues with its work;
The liberal church feels such constraint as limits to their task,
They fail to see, "Grow up your folks so they will elsewhere ask:

"Why do we have this way of life? – I'm planting on this hill,
My flag, for me and Christ don't live this way, and never will."
They'll need resource to hold that line, and prayers, and place to rest,
Church need not be a front-line fort – supply's not second-best.

Conservatives don't struggle there, but struggle in their way:
"Applying Christianity" assails them every day.
The trick is let the Gospel Word address them where they live,
Each stage of change address in full – in all the help you give.

So – change of great significance can happen in your joint;
Shake up a coke within its can, you'll all your walls anoint,
With sticky goo and shards of tin, you need not make the mess –
Help them to grow beyond their space – maturity no less.

The Hebrew term for "Egypt-land" is not the word we say;
"The place of our constriction" speaks of their restrictive day;
Each year they stop and ask again, "Where do I feel hemmed in?"
So in the days which follow they can desert-trek begin.

When they'd arrived – God led them there, with Joseph sold as slave –
Few dozen souls fit in the land which Pharaoh to them gave;
But they out-grew that pleasant land – constrictions hemmed them in –
Approach of which above I speak let's life, like theirs, begin.

I know your people love to see new Christians enter in;
But what I say – look to your flock, what stage is each within?
Fire up conveyor-belt of growth, feed each where each is at –
"Disciple" is the term Christ used, "start there", he said, "with that."

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