This past summer (June 16-August 31, 2019) I was privileged to have the opportunity to get a first-hand look at what it is like to be a pastor in a Mennonite church through the Ministry Inquiry Program sponsored by Conrad Grebel University College, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, and Mennonite Church Canada. 

I decided to do this experience at my home congregation of Breslau Mennonite Church (also a sponsor), so I was supervised and mentored by my pastor Eleanor Epp-Stobbe. I learned a lot from her through the wisdom and experiences she shared with me in our many conversations, the openness to questions and ideas from me, the feedback she provided me, and by allowing me to accompany her to a number of visits, meetings, and various mid-week worship services to not only observe but in most cases also to participate. 

I also had the chance to try my hand at some church leadership tasks, such as preaching, worship leading, and leading the Bible story “Quest” session at the church summer camp. An outreach experience was also part of my summer which took the form of volunteering at a House of Friendship community centre day camp one day a week.

The main reason I decided to pursue this opportunity was to learn about what the day-to-day life of a career in pastoral ministry is like and how my skills, gifts, interests, and personality traits would work with the practicalities and tasks of the role of a pastor. 

Over the past couple years I have been thinking about and wrestling a lot with my faith, trying to figure out what my beliefs are and what my relationship with God is really like. Recently I became more interested in the study of theology and the Bible and had been giving a lot of thought to what I should do with my life, or what vocation would best allow me to live out my faith using my gifts. 

I had never really considered becoming a pastor but I started to look into the possibility of pursuing a graduate degree in Divinity or Theological Studies after I’m done my undergraduate just for the sake of wanting to study the Bible more in depth and think about how to apply it to my own life. Then early this year I had some conversations where I was encouraged and inspired to participate in this Ministry Inquiry Program and think about going into pastoral ministry in the future.

Looking back on it, I feel I was a bit over-eager going into the summer as I volunteered to do the sermon on my first Sunday and tried to cram as much of my Biblical and theological knowledge into it as I could, which I realize now may not have been the most engaging or helpful for those listening but I guess it was still a good learning opportunity for myself. 

I did two other sermons during the summer - one a reflection as part of the summer worship theme “Exploring Sacred Spaces” at Breslau at the end of July, and the other a short meditation when I had the opportunity to lead a Thursday-morning worship service at Nithview home near the end of August - and from my own evaluation I feel that each one I did I improved upon the one I did before it. Through feedback, reading, and self-reflection throughout the summer I learned some tips and insight about preaching which will be helpful if I will be giving sermons in the future.

Through leading Quest at the summer camp, in which I taught and led different activities based on Bible passages to four age groups of kids ranging from SK to Grade 5, as well as leading the worship service at Nithview, and helping with a communion service for Breslau members at Fairview Senior’s Community home, I learned that although the general message and purpose is always the same, you really have to understand the needs and experiences of the people you are teaching or leading in worship (which I found are quite different depending on their age), and make sure you’re tailoring your approach to these needs and experiences. 

Although I found this challenging at times as I was preparing for these things, I really enjoyed these experiences and they helped me to have confidence that I have the ability to interact with and share my faith and with anyone, no matter what their age is. 

Visiting people from our congregation with Eleanor, in which I was able to learn about people’s life experiences and get to know them better was also an enjoyable part of the summer. I learned how meaningful it can be for a person to have someone drop in for an hour or so to talk to, to listen, to support, to care for, and to pray with, as well as how meaningful it can be to be the one dropping in.

Although my volunteer position at the House of Friendship Courtland-Shelley Community Centre daycamp wasn’t explicitly ministry-focused nor was the daycamp a Christian-focused camp, spending a day each week with these kids, also ranging from age 5 to 12, helped me work at my patience, listening, and conflict-management skills. 

It also helped me learn how to live out the principle of seeking out and paying special attention to the one who needs it the most, the “least” or the “lost”, which is hard to do when there are so many kids looking for that attention and love, and it’s not always the same one who needs it the most.

Being able to attend a number of church committee meetings, an Adult Christian Education Committee meeting and a Worship Committee meeting, reminded me of our value as a Mennonite church that it’s not just those in leadership who have a say in what happens at the church but we plan church life and make decisions in community. I enjoyed participating and being part of the fellowship of these meetings. I also was able to attend a ministerial meeting with Eleanor at the start of the summer in which we met with other pastors in our MCEC cluster which was interesting and fun to be part of.

Overall I am very happy I decided to take this opportunity to spend a summer exploring what the life of a pastor is like and I would highly recommend this kind of experience to anyone in the church even if they’re not considering pursuing pastoral ministry. 

The main thing I learned this summer is that ministry is about listening to people, walking with people, meeting people where they’re at, and building relationships with people rather than just teaching people the theological doctrine behind these things or telling people what you believe is the best way for them to live: it’s simply about living in the grace and love of Jesus yourself and sharing this with others. 

It’s now pretty clear to me, my experience this summer has helped me confirm, that pursuing further Christian education is what I want to do after I’m done my undergrad and although there’s still time to decide whether pastoral ministry is right for me, it’s now definitely something I could see myself doing in the future.