Pastor Ryan Gaffney

I have written often about my love for games, and made even more references to games that are important to me or inform my theology. I particularly love good games that force players to work together and make interesting decisions. I’ll get snobby about games that are too simplistic or noncompetitive.

So among my favorite games is a game called Pandemic, which pits players against the board itself on a  quest to cure 4 diseases before supplies run out. The catch is that is too many outbreaks occur before the cure is found, everyone loses. That means every move is a choice between patching problems before they destroy you, and actually doing work to win the game. The goal is to allow just enough fires to burn at a time that they do not blow up.

It’s a great premise for a tense game, but it is also a great illustration of real life. And it doesn’t get talked about enough.

In our world of meritocracy and perfectionism (or bitterness and jealousy, if you prefer) the rhetoric is that if something is worth doing it’s worth doing right. But in the real world there are usually 100 things worth doing, and at least a few things that are not intrinsically worth doing at all except that somebody will punish you if you don’t.

School is a great example. Despite my nerdiness, I was never above about a B student on average. I was the kid that every teacher would take aside to give the same speech “If you only applied yourself you could be getting straight As.” But I didn’t want straight As. I wanted to build fighting robots. So I did just enough to get the grades I needed.

It’s a good thing too, because even though all my teachers were sure that attitude would get me nowhere on Wall Street, it is absolutely crucial in the Ministry. Perfectionism kills clergy. And if I had trained myself for decades not to be satisfied until everything is completed to the letter, I would be in sorry shape for the church.

Instead Ministry is like Pandemic. There will always be people upset at your last sermon, or in need of more pastoral attention. There will always be maintenance concerns and financial needs. The goal cannot be to have them all resolved. The Goal instead is to plug enough of those holes to stay afloat, and then do the work of the ministry, equipping leaders for service in the Kingdom of God.

One of my favorite things about by job as a campus minister is it’s amorphous nature. Between ministering, fund raising, networking, and personal development it is very difficult to find an activity that I might participate in which is not part of my job.

Flying Kites in the park? That’s a “Gathering Event”
Read a book in the local coffee shop? That’s called “Reasearch”
Going to a bar with some freinds? We call that, “Evangelism”

Earlier today I went to an event at the International Student Center and ended up being interviewed about multiculturalism by the campus newspaper… But I didn’t go with the intention of forwarding InterVarsity’s value of Ethnic Reconciliation. I went because I like Korean food!

I understand how this might drive someone else crazy, because you’re never really off the clock. But you’re also never really on the clock, you do the work you want to do, when and where you want to do it, and if it get’s interrupted, so be it! Nobody is going to tell me that my 15 minute break is not for another 6 minutes.

Often I’ve been out somewhere, at about 10 at night. and people will start to recognize that they need to get to bed. “I’ve got work in the morning” someone will say “I’ve got to be in the office by 9” Another will say “Yeah I’m opening tomorrow, I have to be up by 6” and one lucky person will say “I can stay up, I don’t have to be in until noon”… That’s usually when all the heads turn to look at me as if to say “And what about you Ryan?”

And I look around at them, shrug and say “I’m pretty sure I’m at work” It’s phenomenal.

But that’s not something available only to Campus Ministers. Actually I’d argue that’s the call for all of us, we just have to define “work” differently.

See I’m lucky enough to get paid for what every christian is called to do anyway: Spread the Gospel, Love the Neighbor, Make the World a Better Place. The difference between me and a Mechanic, is that a Mechanic also fixes cars for people.

And It’s my hope that everyone will have a job they love. Whether that’s fixing cars, or performing surgeries, or teaching windsurfing, because when you love your job you never work a day in your life. But it’s also my hope that every christian, would love their ministry, and engage in it constantly, and never, never, be off of God’s clock.

People often ask me what an “average day” looks like for me as a minister at KSU. My answer is always the same, “there’s no such thing” In the field, every day is different, and in the line of service to the cross I have done everything from preaching to a congregation of octogenarians on Easter morning, to dressing up as a giant chicken and throwing candy around.

Some days I mess up and end up hurting people, some days things work out and I end up changing people’s lives. Some days I wonder if I ever accomplish anything at all. But today was a good day, So hopefully if I tell you about it, you’ll be able to get some idea of what sorts of things go on. (better than if I were to tell you about a terrible day where I was stuck in the snow for most of it anyway)

Today I woke up at the crack of noon, and promptly went back to sleep. No appointments, might as well take advantage of the opportunity to oversleep.

At about 2 I got out of bed, checked e-mail, and started cleaning my basement apartment. Administrative duties; Organizing receipts to deduct, creating a list of follow ups, dishes… that sort of thing. By 4 I was at Bluestem, my local haunt, the Coffee Shop where I go to mingle when I don’t have anywhere in particular to be. I wrote out my Ministry update letter, and sent out a vulnerable e-mail to my Sunday Night Group, asking for some help with it.

Bluestem is always filled with acquaintances, Baristas and other locals chat, and hang out, A Statistics Prof, gives me advice on my shorthand poker game while two other friends discuss the finer points of acknowledging one’s ex’s birthday.

Around 5 I make a trip to the Verizon Store because I’m going over the limit on text messages. I’d had a conversation earlier this week with two students over text about the differences between Men and Woman, John Henry Newman’s seminal work, and Die Hard and it put me clear over the top.

By 6:00 I’m back at Bluestem finishing a Blog post. And I got a call from another student wanting to know the “name of that kind of study we’ve been doing” He and I have been leading a manuscript study for the last couple of weeks, and he wanted to know the name of it, because he was going to try it with his house church…AWESOME!

Long story short, I end up attending the gathering, where I get to see one of my leaders lead others, into leading an inductive study of the Bible. I get done just in time to make it to “Theology on Tap” a ministry of the Episcopal Canterbury to talk about God in a pub. I brought a non-christian friend and we both loved it. Most of us were ministers, all of us lean left of center (pub and all) and the conversation was great. I got the number of a potential new mentors. My friend got to see Christians being christian while recognizing their own mistakes.

When it was over at about 11 many of us stayed and began to dream about a place open 24 hours where you could go to connect with people. We discussed the next generation, and what the world will look like when they’re in charge. We discussed what matters in life, and came to the conclusion that helping people matters, and not much else.

At 1 am we went back to his house, at  1:30 we were searching the internet for some 24 hour prayer ministry we had heard about at 2 we arrived there, and found it empty, so we decided to hold down the fort until 4 when the next shift arrived, and then we prayed with them for another hour

My night wasn’t over until after 5 AM this morning.

I’m sleeping in again