By Ryan Scott | Ministry Intern serving at Valley & Mountain in Seattle, WA
Over the last month at Valley and Mountain, I have been kept busy with a number of pastoral tasks. This includes taking on the work of entering and configuring data in our new church management software. When a church leader hears “I don’t mind data entry,” they discern “I love data entry. Please give me hours of tedious work.” Next time I’ll choose my words better.
I happily agreed to help out with the task because of my experience using data management programs in the public school system. Once I began to work, my youthful enthusiasm quickly turned into childish impatience and crankiness as names and emails were in multiple folders and not alphabetically organized, as the program didn’t automatically save the work, and as my back got sore sitting in the hard plastic chair.
Psalm 35:5 says ”Commit to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”
Well I have come to realize that my commitment to the Lord in a vocational ministry setting also means committing to the nity gritty little tasks of data entry and navigating church management software. I do, however, find it more difficult to see where God is acting in my agony of data entry. I doubt I will see an act of God while sitting at my computer matching email addresses and phone numbers. What I do hold out hope for is that somewhere down the line the work I am doing now will make ministry easier for someone else. Whether that be my mentor, Pastor John Helmiere, or the next intern.
I believe this scenario plays out in our lives over and over. We are confronted with tasks that we do not like, but are obligated to do nonetheless. Perhaps this topic is quite fitting for tax season. In these situations it is incredibly difficult to see the purpose through the fog of all the monotony of the task. Just as Psalm 35:7 says so eloquently:
“Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices.”
We are called to wait for the Lord. We are called to wait when it doesn’t make sense and even when we are frustrated with the task at hand.
As I sit with this thought I’m going to “trust in the Lord, and do good”, I blast some tunes and tackle this data entry task knowing that someday my sacrifice and perseverance will possibly pay off as an act of God for someone else in the future.
Ryan is from Springfield, OR where he was a paraprofessional specializing in after school/community programming and 9th grade academic support/intervention with Springfield Public Schools and the Willamalane Park and Recreation District. Ryan was also the Youth Director for Trinity United Methodist Church in Eugene. Ryan’s passion for faith and youth was sparked by serving in Boy Scouts of America as a camp chaplain and scoutmaster where he was constantly exposed to the issues youth care about. This led to further exploration of a call to vocational ministry in the UMC. Ryan now serves at Valley and Mountain Fellowship, a spiritual community in the diverse South Seattle neighborhood of Hillman City as an apprentice minister.
