Pastor or Chef?

I never know what to call myself. I’m a leader of a church (we call ourselves a neo-monastic community or a missional order, but we are still a church). “Leader” seems to generic. “Pastor” comes with baggage and isn’t accurate–I’m not particularly nurturing. I usually simply call myself “director” because it describes the sorts of logistical leadership I offer without falling into a clergy/laity distinction. But lately, I think I’ve been more of the head chef.

I love cooking. It is one of the few things in life that really recharge me. I enjoy the artistic quality of preparing a meal, and I enjoy the practicality of preparing it for others. Offering hospitality is the closest I come to being a pastor. Lately, in our household, it has become a necessity for us to eat together almost every night. This helps with budgeting, and it also helps us see each other and pray with each other daily. I have gladly taken up the lion’s share of cooking.

Before we made this arragement, I though about whether or not this is a good use of my time. After all, I am a ministry leader and a quasi-intellectual. Surely spending about five hours a week in food preparation isn’t a good use of my oh-so-valuable time. Also, since I’m such a guy-on-the-go, can I really afford to spend most of my supper-times home, when I could be out and about?

Poppycock. In a community that values hospitality as its primary way of “doing ministry,” I think cooking a meal for my housemates and whoever it may be that is invited over that night is a good use of time. It will be an even better use of my time when we secure a house on the West Bank as our Missio House.

Furthermore, meeting with house mates almost every night to eat, check-in, and pray has been a profound spiritual discipline. Not only has the amount of money I spend each month on dining gone down, so too has my grocery budget, even though I am cooking for more people. Since Amy quit her teaching job with St. Paul Public Schools to persue a part time job teaching English in Riverside Plaza (aka the “Crack Stacks”), and since I am making very little money indeed (and will continue to make very little money until I start getting a paycheck from InterVarsity), we have needed to cut back.

The reason I share these reflections on cooking is to remind myself, and my readers, that ministry isn’t something to be defined rigidly. What we do in and as the church is a mixture of spiritual gifts, talents, needs, and personal satisfaction. Don’t act like you think you’re supposed to act. Vocation is something that ought to be discerned. Furthermore, one oughtn’t get trapped into thinking that we should always “maximize” our time. It is often more important to make someone a bowl of soup than it is to preach a sermon, network with peers, or any of a number of “important” tasks.

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