The time spent in the Synod Training & Exposure Programme has been extremely meaningful for me. Personally, I felt that it was a great time of break where I could spend more time reflecting and consolidating my thoughts which in turn helped me to develop more as a person rather than a ministry worker.
Sometimes, so much time can be spent on ministry work that it starts to take over our life. Eventually, we may find ourselves needing ministry more than it needs us. Our lives become engulfed in planning events, meeting up with people within our ministry and perhaps even preparing for bible study. Slowly, our joy and excitement for the Lord diminishes. We start off as passionate workers for God and end up as passionate workers for work.
The past two weeks however, provided me with the opportunity to rest, learn, think deeper about my calling and recharge so that I may enter ministry refreshed. The lessons on John Calvin’s theology and the reconciliation of religion and science served well as an equipping tool in understanding church liturgy and tackling tough issues that our fellow friends may ask concerning the relationship between faith and science.
While I have been thoroughly enjoying this process of learning, interacting with fellow Christians from other churches and even catching up with people from my own church, I do wonder and spend time thinking about the work and effort put into all these sessions and activities. Throughout the entire session, there will always be at the very least one pastor around. Sometimes, the pastors have to juggle between going back to their own church for meetings and then coming back again. While they are here, work back at the office is piling up on them. Some may even have to pick their child up from school and return back again. Yet without fail, they happily and joyfully appear to sit in with us (or at least they look happy).
Looking at it from a broader perspective, the learning that takes place is not limited to the speaker who gets the stage and happens to be teaching us something. It also extends to the pastors who quietly plans and faithfully looks out for us. They teach us something too. Theirs may not be heard or seen as visibly as the speakers that are invited but it is perhaps more real than anything we’ve heard so far because we can observe how it is lived out. May be in the midst of trying to absorb whatever we can learn from the speakers, we have missed out how much we can learn from these pastors who have dutifully committed their time for our very own spiritual growth.
Adriel Yeo
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