The Pastor’s Monday Story

Mondays are the day off for Pastors. It’s that simple.  

Pastor’s Monday began when I started fishing with Pastor Bobby Baugh on Mondays, showing him the finer points of Spey casting on the Rogue River. I enjoyed teaching the cast and showing him water he’d never fished before. Once the salmon flies appeared on a place, we call the “Holy Water” on the Rogue River, Pastor Bobby Baugh turned off the pressures of Pastoring and tuned into the rhythm of rivers.  

We never missed a Monday.

Spring became summer, the heat returned, and as a lifelong fly fisherman who spends more days chasing fish with wads of chicken feathers on hooks than I will ever admit, I genuinely looked forward to fishing Monday afternoons with Bobby. We didn’t have to talk about anything important, just the pursuit of fish. I enjoyed the company of silence, the presence of a good friend, and allowing the river to wash away what bothered me.

That summer we experimented by asking friends to join us or joining people on the river we knew. Bobby has married just about everyone in the valley, (well, I should say performed the wedding ceremony). I was a public servant and have been in the fish community for a long time, so we both are easily recognizable. But I started guarding our time and wondered aloud what would happen if we did this simply for Pastors. That is how we started Pastor’s Monday, a fully guided fishing experience to serve Pastors.

We did an experiment that taught us an important lesson. We had another Pastor join us and he brought along a member from his church. A fun person to fish with and someone who felt obligated to talk about the church all day with the Pastor. We watched the Pastor stay in Pastor-mode, instead of someone who had the day off. The Pastor was “on.” It’s natural, I suppose, to stay in your lane with one of your flock is sitting right next to you in a drift boat, but we wanted the Pastor to have a day “off.”

The next Monday we experimented again, this time adding Pastors only to our evening fishing. Two Pastors, one boat, men who knew of each other professionally but certainly had never been around each other in this setting. What we learned is that within ten minutes, guards came down and these guys became friends simply because they were fishing. They were “off.”

Pastors are called. Thiers is a job where they are always on. At church, at the Rotary, at the football game, at the grocery store. They know everybody but have very few friends. Pastors are always on duty. They are in the people business, fishers of men, and yet they are alone.

Pastors have few to turn to when a kid gets mixed up in drugs, when they confront mental health issues at home, or when they face the difficulty of managing a church. We’ve had Pastors join us who are damaged by life and have the scars to prove it. Pastors who have lost a spouse. Pastors who worry about their kids and their grandkids. Pastors who had led as their churches split or key community leaders stopped attending. Yes, it true, Pastors are human and because we expect them to have all the answers, they are alone.

Pastor’s Monday grew organically. One Pastor would suggest another, and another, and another. Soon we had Pastors from all over the region coming, simply by word of mouth, who wanted a day off. Pastor’s wives heard about us and started writing notes suggesting we get their husbands out of their hair on Mondays! Every denomination, every color, every age, every flavor, and every kind of fisherman is coming. We put urban Pastors with rural Pastors, black with white, young with older. Sometimes we know a backstory of a Pastor and paired them with a guide and another Pastor who might be a perfect fit. Know what we do next? Get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to do the rest.

Pastor’s Monday has one agenda: to have no agenda. To simply serve Pastors is why Pastor’s Monday exists. The Pastors don’t have to talk; they don’t have to know how to fish; they don’t need to bring anything, we will ask nothing of them, we are simply here to serve.  

Jesus only called fishermen, but very few of our Pastor’s knew how to fish. We’ve hosted Pastors who have never touched a fly rod all the way up to very accomplished outdoorsmen like Pastor Baugh. They come, they learn, they break rods, borrow our old mostly patched waders, and always leave excited. It’s not about the fish.

Catching fish is a small, very small, part of Pastor’s Monday.  

Jason A. Atkinson

Head Guide/Founder

Pastor’s Monday- we take the fishers of men, fishing for fish.