Click Here for Part 1 – Leadership Learnings from “Down Under” (Part 1)
 
Pastoral care is not an exclusive responsibility of the clergy. As a matter of fact, pastoral care is often more effectively done by the laity. That reality became abundantly clear during my six month ministry at the Frankston Methodist Church in Frankston, Victoria, Australia.

My invitation to serve that congregation came as the result of a series of coincidences. Ken and Edna Runciman and their three children came to Columbus, Ohio so that Ken could get his doctoral degree at Ohio State University. They lived in an apartment near the church I was then serving in Columbus. Our two families spent a lot of quality time together during their stay, and a few years later I received a phone call about 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning (their time in Australia was about 4 p.m. on Monday evening), and Ken let me know that their minister was moving. As a result of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregations churches were all uniting, there was a melding of organizational procedures The Presbyterian method was chosen as the procedure for receiving a new minister. This meant that after a given day a church could gather the information about the clergy who had been in their churches for several years. After looking those over it was decided which ones they would be willing to invite as their new pastor. The invitation was not to begin until a given date, and when the Frankston Church made the invitation, none were available since they had already accepted invitations from other churches. What the Frankston Church learned was that the former Presbyterian Churches had not waited until the deadline to make their invitations. It was then that Ken and Edna Runciman suggested trying to get me to come over and serve their congregation as pastor for two years.

There was no way I could leave my church in Ohio for two years, and I told them that. Ken called back in a few days and asked if I could come for a year. I told him that might be possible but I wasn’t sure. The next day, I was called and told that the Frankston Church had learned that an ordained clergy who was teaching in a seminary in Melbourne would be willing to serve the church for six months if I could come for six months. Epworth United Methodist Church, which I was serving in Columbus, said that my associate pastor could handle things for six months by herself and that I should accept the invitation.

My first Sunday at the Frankston Church, Doreen Towers told me that she always met with the pastor in his office on Monday mornings and asked if that would fit my schedule. I assured her that it would. What I learned from her visits was an amazing method for using the pastoral skills of laity. She told me that church newsletters were never mailed to members of their congregation. Rather, they had recruited and trained members of the congregation to visit six to eight member families on a monthly basis. They would hand deliver the church newsletter and during their conversations they would learn of any special events or special needs. That information was then shared with Doreen and she would decide how to address the needs. Usually, about one third of the family concerns were given to the pastor to address. The rest were taken care of by appropriate laity in the congregation. Though this process, Doreen learned that a much higher percentage of the congregation read the newsletter than when it was mailed once a month. It also saved the cost of mailing. Friendships were deepened between the callers and the members being called on. It deepened the sense of “community” immensely and the pastor did not need to worry about not knowing when people should be called on.

After my six month “fill-in” ministry in Australia, I returned to the Epworth United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio. I tried to copy the pastoral care program which Doreen Towers had taught me, but I was told that it sounded like too much work for too many laity, and that it wouldn’t work. Sometimes we win, and sometimes we don’t!