Normally, I say I am a pastor/mother, not because I identify with or value being a pastor over being a mother. It’s because I can’t separate being a pastor and a mother. I don’t necessarily have that problem with being a mother. To my kids, I am just their mother. However, this past week, I feel I functioned more as a mother/pastor. With all the Halloween hoopla, I spent more time at my children’s schools helping out with the parades, parties, dance, and soccer. Spending more time at school means I spend more time with other parents.

More parents are discovering that I am a pastor at the church across the street from the school. When I say “discover,” I don’t mean to compare myself to some extinct and rare animal that just got spotted. Many parents have been inside my church or passed by the church on the way to school and didn’t realize that they knew the pastor all along. What’s been a wonderful surprise is how many emails I have recently received either requesting ways the kids can do a service project like our food pantry or requesting space for a school fundraiser. My hope is also to expand the amount of after school programs the school offers by hosting them at my church as well. Space is hard to come by in the city.

It’s weeks like this that I feel it is my role as a mother that has opened opportunities for ways my church can serve as well as discovering ways that the church has been a safe place for people to be without even knowing it.