This month, we thought we might share with you the most enjoyable-and the least enjoyable parts of the privilege of working in this office.

First, the most enjoyable parts:

(1) Working With the People With Whom I Work the Most Closely: The Conference President, the Conference Treasurer and my Administrative Assistant.

I appreciative of, and grateful to God for, the opportunity to work with Elder Browne, Philip Palmer and Margaret Weathers. At some of you can testify to the fact that it is a difficult, yea, dreadful thing, to have to work closely with people with whom you do not get along.  I recognize that I am very blessed that that is not the case for me.

We shared with you last week, that the Officers of the Conference are in almost constant communication with each other, and that is so important. I understand better why the Bible says “In a multitude of counselors, there is safety.”

There have been times, where a particular situation in my area of responsibility and I’ll bring it up in meetings with the President and the Treasurer. We’ll discuss together and I’ll get a different and valuable perspective.

Just recently, we were talking about a particular issue, and one of them said something, and the light came on for me. I had completely missed something and I was about to make a wrong decision. I should have seen what they mentioned-it was right there in front of me- but I had completely missed it-by a mile.

The person affected by my decision would have almost certainly thought I was being malicious. But I didn’t intend to be malicious at all; I was just not very perceptive in that case. 

I am very grateful for the communication and interaction between the Administrators of the conference. I know I am better off because of it and I want to believe that the conference benefits at least a little from it as well.

I am also blessed with a very dedicated and efficient Administrative Assistant, Mrs. Margaret Weathers. We have been friends for almost 25 years now. I was her Pastor, I baptized most of her children, dedicated one of her grandchildren. Her husband and I used to play basketball together, back in our younger days.

In a setting such as this one, the most important person to me, after my wife, children and the rest of my family, is my Administrative Assistant. I have been working with secretaries/administrative assistants for most of the past 25 years. I have worked with some very good secretaries/administrative assistant and a few that were, well, not so good. Believe me, I know the difference. I am blessed that Mrs. Weathers is very good at what she does and very dedicated as well.

(2) The Opportunity to Travel and See Different Places, Worship in Different Churches and Meet Different People: Having a job that places you in a different church each week means that in the 18 years that I have hd the privilege of working in the conference office, I have meant a lot of really nice people. That is why I enjoy things such as Campmeeting, Youth Congress, Oakwood University Alumni Weekend, etc., so much-it’s a chance to reunite with the people I have met over the years. I recognize how blessed I am with that particular facet of my work.

Here’s what I am not all that crazy about that is involved in my work:

(1) The Abundance of Meetings: Meetings are a necessary part of doing the Lord’s work. Most of the meetings I have to attend are useful and reasonably enjoyable. But-can I be honest, there are some meetings that I have to attend that are a torturous waste of time.

I had a faithful secretary who occasionally, would make use the least excuse to come and get me out of meetings when she felt I needed “rescuing”. That was great !

There is not very much at all that I dislike about my job, but certain meetings are right there at the top of the list of things with which I wish I did not have to deal.

(2) The Travel: I know that that is part of what I said I liked. I have a like/dislike relationship with travel. I enjoy traveling, but, now that I am older, it wears me out a lot more than it used to do.

In my Youth Director days, I would take the “red-eye” from California, fly all night and drive straight to the office from the airport and work the rest of the day.I would do that most of the times that  I took a red-eye; not any more! I used to be able to work 5-6 hours on Friday and then leave work and  drive 6-7 more hours into Mississippi or Pensacola, Florida; not any more ! Now, I don’t come to the office any more on a day where I have to drive more than about 4 hours.

And, the other downside of travel is that, most of the time, it keeps me away from my wife. I suppose that is the part that I like the least.

So, I suppose that the very best thing that could happen on my job would be a trip to a church that had great worship, where I met a lot of nice people, when my wife could go with me. I am blessed that over the years that has happened a number of times.

And, conversely, the ultimate bad news would be a long trip by car to a meeting that I did not want to attend, with long, torturous meetings, where I had to be away from my wife. I have had a few of those, too.

But overall, I am thankful for the privilege of doing what I do. And, I’ll try to remind myself of that the next time I am in one of those meetings.

See you next month !

Conference Executive Secretary’s Sabbath Schedule for April