If the church needs a new roof, in response to the question of when, the agrarian will say, After planting. When it s done. This can be frustrating for the urban pastor who carries a DayTimer. A rural person might show up late to a meeting saying, I had one more round to go in the field. Pastors would be wise to not make an issue of this task orientation.
Many pastors plan their work by the clock.
But an agrarian is not likely to understand if he can t see his pastor because it s his time to study. The farmer might live 40 miles away and this is the time when he had to come to town, and he decides to drop in to see his pastor. To some degree, timeliness is cultural. A new pastor was assisting in a feed store, helping to fill sacks with corn. As he pulled his first bag off the scale and started to close it, the pastor noticed a look of concern on the face of the store owner.