I've been Rector here now for the best part of twelve years. Our eldest is about to start GCSEs. And just assuming for a moment that we were to stay here until our youngest finishes his A-Levels, I would have notched up twenty two years - quite a stint by modern standards. So I have been thinking about this.
OPPORTUNITIES
One can know and be known. And show commitment to people and place. You live out perseverance.
More and more, if you are doing a good job, people will come to you for weddings, baptisms and funerals across the generations. You will have lived through joys and sorrows with more and more families. You earn the right to speak into their situation quite boldly, perhaps, if you all know that you have poured years of love, prayer and practical care into their lives.
You and the church will have changed together - perhaps for better or for worse. Even if you didn't come with a master plan for revolution, tiny tweaks over five and ten years might have made a big difference. It is said that people overestimate what they can do in a year or two but underestimate what they can do in five or ten.
CHALLENGES
You can't look to a change of place, necessarily, for stimulus. So how will you keep fresh?
If you are going to preach engagingly on Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and Trinity for twenty years, you will need to expand beyond a few favourite Bible passages and ideas. You need depth. Your rootedness requires roots.
And you need to pray for openness and optimism. Someone (perhaps you!) will say, "We tried that ten years ago and...." You need to be willing to try new and old things. You need to keep plodding on, sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but knowing the Goal and the Way, following Christ and leading others to him.
Which of your weaknesses are deforming your church over time? How can you and others mitigate against them?
What do you think? What have you seen of long or short spells as Vicar for good or ill? What are your hopes and fears for the long haul?
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