Learning to be a pastor...

I spent yesterday and today at my denominations conference center getting an "orientation" on being a new pastor. Ever the student, I was the awkward person asking all the questions (how is it possible other people didn't have questions)?

I actually had a lot of questions about all the "grown up" stuff like pensions, retirement accounts, health insurance, social security, finances of the church, where my role is in all of that. So much information to figure out. Besides I figured they were inviting questions about such things and I just happen to have a few handy.

I ended up getting to connect with some other young clergy, which I really love. The average age for pastors in my denomination is around 57 (I think it's possible I made that number up but the avg. age is much older than I am), so it's nice to find other young clergy to talk too. Overall, not a bad way to spend a couple of days. I do like clarity and information (it's just how I operate) so I appreciate forums to learn and ask questions as I can figure it all out.

And since this is a post about my job I thought I would post a few pictures from last sunday that my MIL took while I was serving communion.

Children's moment (I've obscured the faces of those children that don't belong to me)

Breaking the bread

The cup.

We use grape juice in my denomination, so whenever I take communion somewhere with wine it's always a shock to the system. I much prefer the grape juice.

A few months ago I took my confirmation class to an Episcopal church for worship. I told them that they use wine and they were all super excited about this (Middle schoolers are funny. Apparently getting alcohol even if it's a tiny bit on a piece of bread is exciting). However, after the fact they all thought the wine tasted horrible. I'm telling you once you're used to grape juice the wine just shocks the system. 

Eli and Emmy after the service hanging out in a pew.