Scarecrow Ministry

Scarecrows are both strange and useful and dressed in whatever comes to hand. Is that a good description of ministry? Perhaps not. Scarecrows have a role to scare, but they also have a role to protect. Perhaps that gets us closer. We might not want to stress 'scaring' as an aspect of ministry - yet there are things we should scare off - hatred, injustice, greed etc. There is certainly much that we need to protect and which we might describe in terms of love, goodness, kindness etc. Barbara Glasson develops the concept of scarecrow ministry in Mixed-up Blessing (Inspire, 2006). She talks about it as "believing in the possibility of something yet unknown" just as a scarecrow "stands over an empty allotment" (p. 91). We often don't know where our ministry is taking us and the call may well be to just hang in. We certainly don't always know what fruit is going to appear in a particular place. Often the task, like that of the scarecrow, is one of watching and waiting. Often we are rushing round doing things, when we would do a lot better to just wait and see what emerges. "Scarecrow ministry is less about planting something and more about looking lovingly at an empty patch, hoping for signs of life, staying with the belief in the invisible things God has sown" (p. 92). What else can we learn from the scarecrow? Its arms are wide open. That is a symbol of acceptance and welcome, and can be demanding in terms of energy. The scarecrow's task is to scare away the birds. What are the birds that we need to be scaring away? The scarecrow often looks ridiculous, dressed, as it usually is, in random clothes. Are we prepared to look ridiculous when that is what's needed? One is reminded about that stuff around the foolishness of the Cross. The scarecrow gets to the point where it needs to be dismantled. We are much better at beginning things than we are at ending them. We need to remember that what we are concerned with is God's story. Certainly we are part of the story, but the story is always bigger than us. "Scarecrow ministry is only a means for the seeds to grow. When the seeds have taken root and are growing then the scarecrow has done its job. All ministry is about facilitating God's work, participating in God's story, nurturing God's people" (p. 103).