ShepherdLeader.com

The image of the maternal in ministry is one I can relate to as a woman. Even before I became a mother, it seemed a natural fit that I relate to my congregation as a mother. When I moved to a new church, I received cards and calls from people in my old church on Mother's Day - though I was at the time still single and without physical children of my own! I think that a good deal of the work of pastoring especially as it relates to care of individuals is similar to mothering, and probably subject to some of the same kinds of potential pitfalls (overprotection, smothering). I know that as much as I sought to nurture appropriately, sometimes I overprotected those in my care.

The midwife image is powerful too. I think of the named women, Shiphrah and Puah in Exodus who may have attended Moses' birth, but were certainly subversively obeying God as they disobeyed Pharoah. And God rewarded them with their own families. One challenge for pastors as midwives is to bring to birth what God is wanting to be born in peoples' live and in the church, and not merely giving birth to our 'own' children.