This is post is part of a series called “Being the Mama and the Minister”. The first post was here.
So I was pregnant, I didn’t feel led to quit my job, and I didn’t feel comfortable with putting my child in childcare all day long. Sounds like an easy problem to solve, huh? 🙂
The first hurdle we had to cross was the issue of maternity leave. I was the first pregnant staff person, I think ever. We had no maternity leave policy. Thankfully I had not been sick much and had LOTS of days saved up. This was a plan that made me nervous because of the unknown of what happens after the baby is born. What if she was sick or what if something happened? But I trusted that God and our staff would provide. It was a catalyst, though, for our teams to formulate an official policy (unfortunately that happened after I had my SECOND baby, but that was God’s fault… we didn’t plan for them to be so close together. 🙂 )
The second was the big question of what happens to my job. My proposal was to be able to work from home for a large majority of the work week. I usually accomplished more in the evenings with my laptop than I did in the office anyway. I felt I could do it, but it was a very different concept from anything we had done before. There was also the question of how other staff and how my volunteers would respond.
I also tried very hard to make known that along with my proposal, if the arrangement ever became a detriment to the ministry or to the church, we would change it at that moment. I did not want my personal needs to negatively impact what God was doing in the kids ministry.
I really think most churches and most pastors would have laughed at my crazy proposal, if they would have even listened in the first place. Working from home is a lot more common now than it was 5 years ago. They could have very easily told me if I wanted to keep working there I would have to make childcare arrangements.
But they didn’t.
They were gracious enough to let us try it. And we did. And it has worked. I won’t say it has always been easy, but we’ll talk about that in another post. And I feel that God has blessed both sides. As my oldest prepares for 5K next year, I can’t imagine not having had this time to invest in her. I feel I would have always regretted sacrificing her early years for ministry. And on the flip side, had I quit, I think a part of me would have always felt like something was missing. And in some ways, the escape of ministry has given me sanity in the crazy days of mothering two preschoolers.
And God has blessed the ministry in spite of my crazy working arrangement. We survived a relocation, programming changes, and more. I don’t say that to brag because it was definitely all God, but He was able to use me even when I wasn’t in my office chair 40 hours a week. More posts later, but I’ve learned more in the past four years than I think I would have in a typical situation.
But what I’ve learned most is that my pastor and staff love my family more than they love me being in the office. (Wow, that totally set them up for lots of sarcastic remarks). Our church values family, and as long as I have maintained my end of the bargain, they have fully supported me being the mama and the minister. In fact our administrator allowed my girls to sit in on a phone conference meeting in which my 4 year old was trying to lick ketchup off her arm. Doesn’t get more family friendly than that. 🙂
How can we be a church that says we value families if we don’t invest and support the families within our own staff?
KidMin Thoughts 