 |  It's easy to miss them, but they're pure gold
Winter 2004
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Got a Moment, Pastor?
Do you approve the minutes of the meetings God arranges for you?
Gordon MacDonald
January 1, 2004
A day at the office for Richard almost always started the same way. Parking in the space marked "Pastor Richard Wolf," he would enter the administrative suite through a limited-access back door, head for the desk of his assistant and place his Palm Pilot in a hot sync cradle cabled to her computer. A beep confirmed that the latest version of his schedule was downloading.
With a cup of coffee, he would walk swiftly to his office and shut the door. He'd learned that if you moved fast, kept your eyes down as if deep in thought, people would leave you alone. This "I'm carrying the weight of the world; don't interrupt me" posture had lately become a trademark.
At his desk Wolf would examine the freshened PDA for the contours of his day.
One Monday morning he muttered a bad word when he studied the Palm Pilot and saw that every hour had been crammed with administrative meetings and staff appointments. He said the same word again when he realized that every other day of the week was similarly crowded.
His over-the-top reaction (for him anyway) reflected promises he'd made to his wife and son at breakfast. He committed himself to an afternoon with her to see the fall foliage. He'd assured his middle-school son that he'd be at a Thursday afternoon soccer game. But the Pilot had laid claim to these hours, and the family things weren't going to happen after all.
Everyone owns a piece of me, he mused that morning. When did this stop being fun? Anyone reading his thoughts would know there's trouble building in Richard Wolf's soul. But with whom do senior pastors share such thoughts?
Seven years earlier, a younger Richard Wolf had preached his first sermon to a congregation of a couple hundred. His manner had been appealing, and before long, ...
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