Monday, January 03, 2011

On Chris Clement's "On Office/size"


A few things to clarify:

1) I recently left my job at Norland. Long story but it didn’t fit me very well and therefore it was better to leave than to stay

2) I have a temporary job as the interim pastor at First Baptist Chruch in North Bay

3) I started today and commented (on facebook) on how I sold out because I suddenly had a larger office than I ever expected to have

4) Chris Clements inquired to size… and eventually led to this post about his office: http://cdclements.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-size.html

5) I would like to note I did not ever intentionally claim my office was bigger than Chris… he however asked about it’s size

This led to the question of office size and its relative ministry potential. (The classic its not how big it is but how you use it)

Here is my office layout:



I believe there is one thing which dramatically affects the ministry potential. Chris is a youth pastor (or similar title) and therefore needs an office with couches to increase teen hangout and ultimately ministry potential.

I, for whatever reason, have found myself ministering to adults which requires a different layout of space for effective ministry potential.

I submit to the readers (likely only Danielle Rourke and maybe Nyssa Clements) that both offices have high ministry potential based on the type of ministry we are engaging in.

Patman the Pat

(and mine is bigger… hehe)

7 comments:

nyssa ariel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nyssa ariel said...

Pat - Although it is true that each office seems to offer unique ministry potential based on the type of ministry being offered, there seems to be a lot of wasted space at the center of yours. Or does your adult ministry offer programs in aerobics and/or other programs where lots of floor room is necessary? If that were the case, then the wasted space wouldn't be so wasted.

Jokes. Nice office. :) You totally beat Chris with your personal bathroom.

uniformlydan said...

I don't have an office at the church. I share the only office we have, and I don't get to use the big desk. How does that measure up?

Jono said...

also, note that having couches in an office designed for ministry to teens tends to increase make-out sessions, heavy petting, and other activities which teenagers are generally too greasy to be involved in.

Chris' office has a much greater potential for encouraging this sort of sin.

C.D. Clements said...

Jono;
There are plenty of other places in my church where kids *may* do these things already.

If anything, we should remove the Sunday school rooms.

I stand by my couches.

Patrick Sutherland said...

No one makes out in my office... not even me...

Nyssa- Funny I moved in to the office today and spent a large portion of time(once the discussion on offices began)frustrated at the giant gap in the middle...

Dan- I like the shared office at your church... you also got a house...

Jono- always a pleasure to hear your unique take on things

Chris- there was a time in our lives that we lived in small box like rooms with mattresses high in the sky or low on the ground... they were our offices, our beds, our houses, our lounges... the fact that we somehow managed to move forward and work at places that are willing to even offer us office space is probably what we should focus on...

Danielle R. said...

@All: Friends, I just found this and in light of Pat's last comment of where we've come from, it's quite amazing to me that any of us has been hired to be used by God at all! (Jono's comment does nothing but support this astonishment)! And... I love that even though you mentioned me, that this was somehow the one post I didn't read! Bah!