Pastoral Pay-Off

I've decided to use Quaker queries as prompts for my entries. They're tools for discernment and evaluation for individuals as well as corporate meetings. I may linger on certain queries for a while as a means of continuing to process. I greatly welcome your thoughts and experiences.

Query: Are meetings for worship held in expectant waiting for Divine guidance? Are Friends encouraged to share spiritual insights? Are special gifts of ministry recognized and encouraged?

You know, I don't think I really expect anything to happen in church. I think of it more like school: the teacher does all the hard work of preparing materials, gathering information, and creating a palatable presentation; the students choose to accept it, reject it, or ignore it based on self-interests: does it apply to me? Will it get me further in life? Do I have other things I'd rather think about, like my grocery list or the bald spot of the person sitting in front of my or the next episode of "House"?

My common cop-out is attending a church with a paid pastoral staff: it's *their* job to wait on the Spirit and let me know what the Spirit says. Don't I pay them to do the "hard work"? And they must know more: I mean, they went to Seminary and stuff - I just graduated with a degree in the Humanities.

What would it look like if my meeting had no paid pastoral staff? I don't begrudge the pastors their salaries at all: I’m so pleased that they are freed to pursue a more intensive ministry, provide greater assistance, and focus on equipping the larger body to be missional. My dad works in the ministry; he's never been recorded (the Quaker version of being ordained) so that way he's "just a lay person" working in the ministry: he doesn't want the flack that comes from the congregation leaning too heavily on the pastoral staff, paying the ministers off for their own individual salvation.

I've thought about working in the church: being a pastor or a counselor. My present dream is to be a living, breathing resource for others who want to pursue God's missional/incarnational call in their lives - working with them to imagine what that might look like. Oftentimes folks don't realize that they're doing the work of God, or they think it needs to be some Grand Plan, but really it's the day to day interactions . . . and sometimes taking them one step further. I'd love to share ways that people are doing this, so my worship gathering could say, "Hey, I'd like to do that!" or perhaps hear the call of God through an example that resonated with them.

When I think about doing that, I automatically assume it would be in a pastoral role: have a cubical in the church office, be on the pay roll, attend the weekly meetings. But if I do that, would people lean on me to do the work that they should be doing? I'm not going to do it for them (Lord knows I'm too lazy), but would they have that expectation? Would this be enabling them to continue in incorrect thinking?

Do I meet for worship expecting that God's going to talk to me, or do I meet for worship expecting that God's talked to the pastor who will relay the message on? Lord, I want to be an "expectantly waiting" example: please correct my lazy ways.