Yesterday afternoon, I went to jail.
Then to a hospital room.
Then to another hospital room.
Then to a nursing home.
I was out of the office and away from my computer for several hours straight.
That’s really not that unusual — at least for the course of most of my 25 years in ministry it’s not unusual.
But in recent months, my work days have revolved more and more around my office and its computer. There have been books to finalize, blogs to write, a denomination to wrestle with, friends to contact, parishioners to email, and tweets to twit.
On Wednesday, however, I knew of several situations that absolutely needed my pastoral presence and so for the bulk of the day my computer and I were disconnected from each other.
And you know what I realized?
Ministry is not on the screen. It’s with people.