Page 120 - moondani kyema
P. 120
ndani kyema, My Story - Ray Moore 120
The church, when we first came, was meeting in a converted chook shed - see the
picture above - and while we were there the Baptist Home Mission found the money
for us to build a new church.
Our last church, the Ballarat North Church, also represented quite a steep learning
curve for me. As there were two large hospitals and a third aged care hospital,
together with a large mental health institution, I found that hospital visitation became
an important part of my work. I didn’t find this easy as I found myself in Ballarat
looking at my motivation for everything I did.
So, when I visited someone in hospital, what was I doing? Was I visiting a friend or
acquaintance? Was I there to offer a healing prayer, or comfort from the Scripture?
Was I ‘doing my duty’? Was I there, in some way, to consolidate the numbers in my
church? These were questions I asked in my efforts to carry out my pastoral ministry
with integrity.
One underlying aspect of the pastoral ministry that became evident to me was that I
was always happier when I was working with one or two people at a time, especially
in a time of crisis, conflict or stress. Here I felt as If I was closer to the real me, and
that I was doing something more productive than a lot of the other church duties. I
found that I really loved people, whoever they were. It was easy for me to talk to the
most broken people as well as to the ‘upper echelon’ of society – I was a member of
Rotary for many years.
Although there is a bit of the ham actor in me, I really found preaching difficult. The
difficulty was again the dilemma of preaching only what I had come to believe
personally and not just preach what I thought I ought to, or in some cases what some
members demanded I preach.
It also had to do with the fact that I am not basically a ‘social’ person. Whenever a
church social occasion was organized, I always had to go through a painful
The church, when we first came, was meeting in a converted chook shed - see the
picture above - and while we were there the Baptist Home Mission found the money
for us to build a new church.
Our last church, the Ballarat North Church, also represented quite a steep learning
curve for me. As there were two large hospitals and a third aged care hospital,
together with a large mental health institution, I found that hospital visitation became
an important part of my work. I didn’t find this easy as I found myself in Ballarat
looking at my motivation for everything I did.
So, when I visited someone in hospital, what was I doing? Was I visiting a friend or
acquaintance? Was I there to offer a healing prayer, or comfort from the Scripture?
Was I ‘doing my duty’? Was I there, in some way, to consolidate the numbers in my
church? These were questions I asked in my efforts to carry out my pastoral ministry
with integrity.
One underlying aspect of the pastoral ministry that became evident to me was that I
was always happier when I was working with one or two people at a time, especially
in a time of crisis, conflict or stress. Here I felt as If I was closer to the real me, and
that I was doing something more productive than a lot of the other church duties. I
found that I really loved people, whoever they were. It was easy for me to talk to the
most broken people as well as to the ‘upper echelon’ of society – I was a member of
Rotary for many years.
Although there is a bit of the ham actor in me, I really found preaching difficult. The
difficulty was again the dilemma of preaching only what I had come to believe
personally and not just preach what I thought I ought to, or in some cases what some
members demanded I preach.
It also had to do with the fact that I am not basically a ‘social’ person. Whenever a
church social occasion was organized, I always had to go through a painful
