PK’s for the win!!

Dude. Preacher’s kids (pk’s) are totally cooler than you think.
As you’ve probably picked up on by now, conference just ended. Yay, I guess?

I’m actually kinda bummed. I got to see old friends, meet new clergy, and meet up with some awesome sauce preacher’s kids. (You may take that as a compliment to either the pastor or their child 😉 )

I was actually planning on spending conference plotting and planning, learning and observing, and trying to be an adult.

I know I know, scolding and such. Be a child and such. Enjoy your teenage years and you’ll have plenty of time to go to conference when you’re older.
Yeah you have a point of course but by that time, who knows what’ll happen??
I might not really “feel like going” because I’ve found something “more important” to spend my time working on.
I might not be able to sit still that long when I get older. It’s hard to sit still for three and a half days.
I might not think it’s quite as much fun when its a “have to” instead of an “oh boy it’s time for conference I can hardly wait!” kind of thing. (Yes, I’ve been excited since early to mid May.)
So I’m gonna be an adult in training since I enjoy it and then maybe when I get older I’ll be a bit more used to it and it won’t be quite as bad. Eh?
Back to the subject. The other day, I got the information needed to confuse me. I was hanging out with a couple of preacher’s kids and I asked them if they moved much. They both explained that they really hadn’t moved a lot.

Now, by the time I was twelve, I had lived in six houses, transitioned between eight churches, and gone to five different schools. At one point, I was at three different charges in one year. This was what I considered to be normal. I’m not complaining really. I secretly enjoyed it a few times. I thought it was normal for Methodist pastors to move every two years or so.

About three years back, I was talking to a friend of mine who was a local pk. When she told me she was afraid she might have to move, I gave her a weird look and asked her why. I was utterly confused. I was used to moving. (I moved shortly after this conversation.)

She told me that she had lived there for as long as she could remember. She told me that all of her friends were there. She told me she didn’t want to switch schools. She told me she had always lived in that parsonage.

At that point you could’ve knocked me over with a feather. I was completely and utterly baffled. My mind was blank and full at the same time. I’ve been thinking about that conversation a lot since then. So when I found myself sitting with pk’s who were just different enough to make me curious, of course I had to ask. I still have trouble believing that they don’t move much.

I’m also not sure how I feel about it. I mean, at this point I’m honestly thankful for all the social experience I’ve gained. I’ve gotten to see so many places and meet so many people. I can’t really imagine my life any other way. Consequently, I have trouble imagining other people whose parent(s) has the same occupation as mine not having the same type of life.
So as I was writing this, I decided to look at the 2015 appointment list for our conference just to see what the years looked like this time.
I saw people who had been in the same place for 10, 20, 30, almost 40 years. I’ve never lived somewhere for more than 4. And I had to remember that some people were moving this year for the first time in 5-8 years. It’s just really interesting to me how some people rarely move while other people live in and out of boxes.

All this to say, next time someone says “oh my mom/dad is a pastor” please don’t quickly assume that the kid’s a horrible rebel demon or a saintly angel who memorized the bible backwards in Hebrew. We’re just kids. We go through a lot, but in the end, we just know which liquor boxes work best for books. Okay, we also know more about the bible than our peers. And we know that the number of wise men who went to see Jesus (when he was two, not at his birth) is unknown.

We all have different hobbies. We’re normal(ish) kids. Some of us like music, some like movies, some like video games, some like sports, some like photography, some like painting, some like dance, some like drama, some like astrology. Some even like theology and history. But just get to know them before you assume. Please?

That’s it, that’s all I’ve got for this one. Maybe try to befriend your pastor’s kid if they’ve got one. Some of the adult pk’s are pretty cool too. You just never know.

xx becca