Wednesday Pastor's Duties

Today NPH moderate his last meeting of the church's Daycare and Preschool board; we're handing off moderatorial duties beginning in January. At this meeting, NPH will need to propose and advocate that the Daycare and Preschool budget begin to absorb some of the church's utilities and custodial costs, a suggestion that is bound to meet with resistance. The relationship between the "church" and the "preschool" has always been fuzzy; the preschool is not accredited by the state and so is a church preschool, complete with quasi-religious curriculum and teachers who attend "Christian preschool teacher" workshops every year. In addition, the preschool is governed by a volunteer board of directors made up of church members and moderated (up till now) by the church's pastor.

Yet it's a separate entity. It pays rent to the church, and most of its staff, students, and parents have little else to do with the church. Of course, NPH has tried to create a climate of belonging in the preschool--"preschool students and their families are a part of our church family"--but that kind of language only goes so far when the worshiping congregation on Sundays never sees the folks who use the building Monday through Friday.

Ministry or business? Or both? That's the pressing question that exists constantly in a church-run preschool and daycare. Right now, as a business, the preschool is more solvent than it's ever been, and it's only getting better. While the church, as is the case with most small churches, is ever-mindful of its cash flow.

Anyway, that's the first part of NPH's day.

The second part will find him picking up a young man and taking him to the community health clinic. This is our first experience with the local free clinic, and so far it's been trying. Calling to get an appointment was like trying to win a radio promotion: dial, busy signal, dial again; dial, busy signal, dial again; and so on. And once we did get through, we were on hold for nearly an hour before we got an appointment, the first available one being at 7:15 in the evening the following day. But this is a free clinic, one staffed by volunteer doctors, so we're not complaining.