Stourport Deanery arranged "Encouraging Pastoral Care". The day was designed to be what it was called! Time for anyone interested in the church and pastoral care to come together for mutual encouragement. 

And that is exactly what it was. With Archdeacon Nikki as our keynote speaker we had 40 or so people stimulated by her insights. Workshops were on Pastoral Teams, End of Life Care, Healing and Pastoral care and (led by myself) Caring for Ourselves.

In the Caring for Ourselves Workshop (run twice) we talked about the principles of

• "Sabbath"  - God builds us so we don't work out flat out 24/7, but Jesus breaks the Sabbath and & says his Father is "always working"
• "Prayer" - Jesus frequently withdraws to a quiet place & encourages the disciples to do likewise, but is on occasions met be a crowd "like sheep without a shepherd" and he meets their needs
• Expectations - wonderful to be valued but Jesus when the crowd expects  him to be king  (ironic really because of course he was and is a king) goes off to find a mountain to climb!

 The morning workshop chose to talk about expectations & how we deal with them. Participants felt that they were expected

• to take on new roles without giving anything up, 
• that others expected everything to be done without getting involved themselves, 
• that the church would find solutions to everyone's problems, 
• that new people would bring about unwanted change and/or threaten the position, status and power of existing volunteers  

Coping strategies included (in no particular order)

• Putting the phone down, saying a few expletives and then doing something about the situation,
• Prayer - the cross gives a different persepctive
• resign
•  cry
• gin and tonic
• vocalising the poroblem to yoursleve in a mirror
• going to a quiet place e.g. Glasshampton
• having a working agreement setting oput expectations
• listening to music
• saying "NO"
• knowing who you are
• apps - usable on phone or tablet for meditation/de-stress

The afternoon workshop talked about Sabbath. Should be a day of refreshment but the church can be so obsessed with itself & unaware of demands of work & family that it becomes the opposite.

Strategies/remedies included

• finding fulfilling roles, ones that created energy
• worshipping on days other than Sundays -   midweek services can be life giving
• there needs to be effective leadership 
• communication so that the church is aware of the demands on its members
• prioritising - allowing things not to happen.

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