I do not like paperwork - be it electronic (as, thankfully, most is these days) or physical. I understand there are some things which are necessary and required for legal reasons and the good running of any organisation. It's not helped by being a former civil servant who had to deal with a lot of paperwork on a day to day basis (and make sense of it, in a way the legal experts couldn't).
I am also becoming increasingly aware of the amount of paperwork parish ministers have to deal with. All from a conversation where I was wondering how ministers used to have time to map the nation, such as Timothy Pont, and it was pointed out to me that there wouldn't have been nearly as much admin to deal with.
This daunts, depresses and frustrates me. I am called to minister, not to be an administrator. I know I am not the only person who feels like this and wonder how many newly ordained ministers leave the vocation when the non-ministry things get to them. I also wonder to what extent very easy communication has added to the complexity of admin ministers are responsible for. It's so much easier to loose track of how much there is an its duplication when it goes out in a series of emails, rather than envelopes.
I just hope I don't end up being a parish civil servant. That would do my head in.
One thing I appreciate in one of my congregations is that the presbytery elder is very good at picking up presbytery mailings and getting relevant parts into the intimations or notices or magazine. Saves me having to remember to do it.
ReplyDeleteI also haven't been hit yet with much paperwork, but that may just be an issue of fortuitous timing. I arrived just after a lot of the annual presbytery records submissions were due. But even those are largely the responsibility of others (or at least should be).
and I'm not sure I'm called to be a buildings maintenance manager... *sigh*
ReplyDeleteAh well, onward, ever onward mate!!!