When the Rookie Pastor is away…

As Josh mentioned here, I am taking over Rookie Pastor. Okay that is a little misleading, I am taking over Rookie Pastor for a week. It’s what all the cool bloggers do, right? Go on trips where they will be unable to blog and then assign a guest blogger who is cool, but not as equally as cool, as the host blogger him or herself?

Well, Josh is in Haiti helping lead a trip with our church and Nehemiah Vision Ministries and I am at home. Because I got pregnant. Whoops. Okay kidding we’re thrilled. And there will be many more posts to come about this super interesting stage of life that we find ourselves in. But for now–it’s all about the wives.

The question was posed through the RP twitter account a few weeks back about what topics Rookie Pastors thought that their wives could benefit from as Rookie Pastors’ Wives (RPW).  The tweet received several responses and really got my mind going about how what we could cover this week.

Here’s my heart: I love the role of a Pastor’s Wife. I do. I love talking to other pastor’s wives, doing life with the awesome PW’s at our church community, and reading about how women find support in this role. We need one another.

Leadership is lonely and isolating at times. And it is difficult to balance all of the different hats that we are expected to wear as women in the first place, let alone add in this sometimes-ambiguous role that has gained quite a bit of baggage over the years.

Here’s where we’re headed this week:

Day 1: RPW Defined–Who are YOU?

Day 2: My 2012 Bucket List as a RPW

Day 3: But it’s all ministry?!? Setting Boundaries as a RPW

Day 4: Putting Yourself Out There–Relationships as a RPW

Day 5: Embracing this Life–The Beauty in Being a RPW

Before I say anymore, I want to include two disclaimers.

The first is that I want to acknowledge that I am incredibly blessed as a student pastor’s wife at our church. I don’t feel like I very often have negative interactions because of the one I’m married to. I realize this isn’t always everyone’s experience and want to acknowledge that readers may be in some pretty difficult spots. I never want to sugarcoat anything or act like this is all easy and that our only discussion this week would be sharing corn casserole recipes. Feel free to be honest in the comments section this week–I’d love to hear your experiences.

The second disclaimer is that there could be some RPH’s out there–Rookie Pastor Husbands! I am not intentionally leaving you out! I realize you are lower in number than us RPW, but feel free to contribute your perspective this week as well! I hope some of this series will be helpful to you.

Thanks for reading! I’m looking forward to this week!