When I was in elementary school, I slept under a patchwork quilt sewn by my maternal grandmother. One day I was telling my mom how pretty the quilt was, and she said, “Oh honey, that’s a scrap quilt. All the pieces of fabric came from outgrown clothes or old curtains. Every piece in there is a scrap of something it used to be.” I assured her that even if it was made of scraps, I thought it was beautiful.
My friend, a fellow woman in ministry, and I were recently chatting on the phone. I was telling her about my day. I told her that I had written a blog for BWIM, worked on a Sunday school lesson, and called a friend who had recently had a baby. With laughter I exclaimed, “I am a patchwork minister. I do not have one ministry role that defines what I do. I do pieces of this and pieces of that, and somehow it works. Ironically, many of my former ministries are evidenced in current ones.”
My first ministry position after seminary involved creating sensory motor worship experiences for preschoolers. I combined my knowledge of Christian education, worship, and recruitment of volunteers to create a weekly worship experience. Today I use all three of those skills teaching first and second graders in Sunday school.
My second ministry position was serving on church staff as minister of education and youth. Not only did I create educational and social opportunities for teenagers, I also learned about developing a network of support for a ministry. I developed the skills for identifying people who are passionate about a ministry and then working together to make that ministry thrive. Today I serve on ministry teams and get to use those skills frequently.
And most recently, I wrote a series of Sunday school lessons for Smyth and Helwys. When I was contacted to write, I was asked to work with the theme of spiritual disciplines, particularly Lectio Divina. I chuckled because when I worked with Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, I was given the opportunity to take several classes on spiritual disciplines at Stillpoint in Nashville. In constructing the Sunday school lessons, I did my best to convey what I have learned along the way, and I pray diligently that my experience connects with the learners.
There are days when I want to be more like a patchwork quilt constructed of new fabric and pieced into an elaborate recognizable pattern and less like a patchwork quilt made of scraps of fabric from other places and times. However, I remember my grandmother’s quilt. I never thought it was less beautiful or less warm than one of the fancier pieced quilts. Today I hope to relax into the many different pieces that have lead to the ministry role I have currently.
Tammy Abee Blom is an ordained Baptist minister, regular contributor to BWIM’s blog, mother of two amazing daughters, teacher for children’s Sunday School, and lives in Columbia, South Carolina.