The Health of the Minister (A follow up to my talk to the General Assembly)

And more thoughts on the whole minister and health thing…

Matthew Ruttan's avatarMatthew Ruttan

Picture Matthew speakingThe health and well-being of leaders is hugely important to the vitality of congregations but it is very rarely talked about.

(Pause)

A few months ago I was invited to speak to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. (It’s kind of like a national AGM).

In light of some of the good things happening at Westminster Church in Barrie, I was asked to share remarks as a part of something called Good News in the Church: Vibrant Connections.

(You can watch my 12 minute presentation by clicking here and scrolling down — I start talking about 6 minutes into the video.)

In this blog, I just want to share a bit on one of the things I talked about. It’s close to my heart and also something that I’ve received a lot of feedback about—from other pastors and congregants and friends and strangers on the web.

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Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. She now works at Capital CFO plus as the Non Profit Director. All opinions expressed on this blog are her own and do not reflect those of Capital CFO plus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.

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