on vacation, and Willow Chicago
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 10:00AM i'm back from the most glorious vacation which consisted of a whole lot of napping, and reading, and cooking, and sitting by the beach. all of my most favorite things. after the busiest of seasons including consulting work and LOCAL and travel and two deaths in the family, i felt surprised by how physically and emotionally exhausted i felt. i told kelly a few times that my tiredness didn't make sense to me because the work had been fun and life-giving, and he, being the best husband around, said to me -- crazy lady, take a few days off.
allowing myself to be exhausted seems to be a lesson i'll be learning repeatedly throughout my lifetime. i do work i really really love, but usually while doing this good work, i don't allow or expect myself to feel tired. somewhere along the line i must have learned that you're only really allowed to feel tired when you're doing work that's not matched with your talents, or is work you don't totally believe in, or that you're somewhat bored of, and that the people who are truly in love with their work can go along skippy and satisfied and full of life every day. i'm learning this isn't true. doing good, meaningful, gifts-aligned work is satisfying and when you give your best effort every day to something you love, you're bound to feel tired and in need of good long break.
lesson learned. at least for now.
so now i'm back, and feeling the very good effects of a long vacation. i feel sharp, and creative, and ready to work. which is especially good because i've just started a brand new consulting project. along with my curriculum writing, consulting, and speaking, i'll serve as the Interim Children's Ministry Director at Willow Chicago.
Willow Chicago is my church, and the Pastor is a great friend whom i trust, so when he called and asked if i'd serve in this role for a period of time, i was immediately interested. i've worked in interim roles before and it suits me well. i'm best at evaluating a situation, quickly implementing necessary change, building team morale, and creating a strong infrastructure for the future. i won't be the permanent Children's Director, but i'll work hard to build a great foundation for the next leader.
there's a ton that i'm looking forward to in this new role -- much of which i'll share here on the blog as we progress. i'm an urban girl at heart, you know this of course, which means i come alive in the city. chicago being my favorite of all of the cities. i'm super excited about the challenges that will come from serving city families, as they navigate sunday morning church and parenting. i'm looking forward to the team i'll work with, especially melissa, who is going to let loose her creative energies as we explore new ways of teaching kids. we're going to simplify sunday so the serving experience for volunteers is easy to implement in order to help them focus their energies on building relationships with kids. and, you better believe we're going to do all we can to provide an environment for children to experience living, breathing interactions with God. c'mon. this is going to be fun.
the overarching goal we've established that will guide everything we do is --- Parents Trusting, Volunteers Engaged, Children Learning. we'll ask ourselves every Sunday if in some way we accomplished these 3 things. we'll celebrate when a new parent trusts us by leaving her newborn infant in our care. we'll rejoice when a volunteer shows up on time and is clear on his role. and, we'll shout with joy when a child hears a bible story and responds in action and worship.
i'd be thrilled if you'd join me in this new adventure. i'd welcome advice, encouragement, cookies, anything really. because it's only together that we accomplish great things for kids.
Reader Comments (3)
I cannot wait to read more about your interim position at Willow. Thanks for sharing!
Amy,
Love this post! I'm a bi-vocational children's ministry director and will head back to my job(school improvement and turnaround trainer/facilitator) in about a week. I can identify with giving your all to the work you love and forgetting that you will become tired. Like you, I usually don't realize how tired I am until I go on vacation. Thanks for the reminder to us all to take care of ourselves.
Also, I like the idea of "parents trusting, volunteers engaged,children learning". I would love to use this mission statement with my kidmin team this fall as we gear up the upcoming year....if it's not trademarked.
Look forward to following you and. Work with Willow.
Kimberly -- thanks for the comment! yes, of course -- use the mission statement. no trademark here!