Ministry is a series of mundane things interrupted unexpectedly with less-than-mundane things. Sometimes the mundane and the less-than-mundane are connected. Here’s a glimpse of a Sunday of such connections.

5:15am:

Alarm worked! I get to my desk, heat up the tea and review my sermon for the day. I added a story to the message, checked the other elements and made a game plan for when I arrive at the church. The kids awake and get going at a reasonable pace. I make breakfast, get a shower and am out the door by 8:20am.

8:25am:

I arrive to open the church building. I print out my bulletin script and practice the Introit. It sounds good on the classical guitar.

I check on the sanctuary and notice that I had not created a new altar piece for Lent. I gather river stones from Ash Wednesday from the Fellowship Hall and arrange them on the altar. It’s literally just a pile of rocks. These are stones that bear words of the burdens we were carrying on Ash Wednesday. We will add to the pile of burdens throughout the season.

9:00am

I get a call from a ministry partner at an unusual time. I better take it. It’s NOT an emergency, just an alert that one of her SDA friends will be working in the pallet houses on the end of the property. I alert greeters and door monitors.

9:10am

In walks Barney with a friend who he introduces as Curly. We had some flooding last fall and Barney had parked his truck and car in our lot. He slept in his truck one night before sheltering with the Red Cross. We sheltered people from two local shelters who had to evacuate. Barney had come to worship last week but hadn’t stayed. I am happy and impressed that he came back AND brought a friend. We talk about EUB churches and his other friends came in shortly thereafter: Randall a retired Baptist minister and his wife, Carmen.

9:28am

Our Gathering Music musicians finish and I see them heading to their seats. Am I running late? I head to the front and squeak out an Introit and worship begins.

We began a new story-telling series where parishioners share stories of transformation. Shania gets up and tells about growing up a Presbyterian minister’s daughter and thinking that only Protestants had it figured out: to the exclusion of Catholics, Mormons and well…others. Then she met a nun…who corrected her misunderstanding about Mary. Then she met a Mormon…who corrected her misunderstanding of Joseph Smith. And she has become more open-minded to the inherit blessedness of others. Her Catholic friend in the front pew beamed with affirmation.

We shared prayer times which included updates on various illnesses and procedures, as well as pleas for safe travels and peace in our world. I’ve got to do this better.

Our last prayer was a blessing for our new organist Leslie. We introduced Leslie as being a member of the local LDS congregation and having a Master’s Degree in Organ Performance. We’ve really appreciated her arrival.

After blessing Leslie, we passed the peace where we greeted one another. Many came forward to share extra blessings with Leslie. I then noticed that Barney, Curly, Randall and Carmen remained seated. Nevertheless, they were surrounded by folks insisting on shaking their hands. They seemed to take it well.

After the offering, we welcomed the bell choir. The bell choir is kind of a motley crew of members. I love them. Most of them ONLY do bells. Today, they hit a real home run with The Lord of the Dance. They sounded really good and I was just proud of them. Even though I knew they were playing, I was still surprised by how delightful they played.

After the Benediction I headed to the back like usual but didn’t quite make it back there. I caught up with Carmen who explained that as Baptists, they really hadn’t done Lent as a season. I questioned further and she explained that they loved Maundy Thursday and Good Friday…which to me is really good enough. She also alerted me that she helped Barney stay cool when people shared the peace with them. Then Barney came up himself and we chatted some more. He commended Carmen for helping through and lamented a little that he’d always struggled with introversion. I empathized and let him know that we will try to be more gentle. He then let me know that Randall plays guitar! Well, I had to let the preacher know that he’d been outed by Barney! Apparently, Barney and Randall are part of a group at his old church for people in various rounds of recovery and invited me to check them out.

That conversation was interrupted by a member walking in AFTER worship with her dog.

I followed watched Karla and her dog Fritz turn down the hallway to the Fellowship Hall. I had heard but not taken too seriously the announcement that Josiah would be offering new photographs for our church family photo wall. As it turns out, plenty of people got the memo. When I finally made it into the Fellowship Hall, Karla was standing on the X, Fritz in her arms updating her picture for the photo wall. She lives quite a ways out of town and getting to church is a chore. I was pleased to see her claim her place in the church family and to assert that Fritz is also part of the family! I greeted her after her picture and petted Fritz.

I came back out to the narthex and saw bell choir members moving tables back into the choir room. I approached one of them, Edith, because she had been on a conference call earlier in the week about long-term flood relief. I was surprised because Edith works for the local children’s museum. So I just decided to follow my curiosity and find out how she got on the call. Turns out, she manages outreach resources for the children’s museum. I had no clue! Recently she/the museum acquired a used & decommissioned ambulance so they actually make outreach calls to kids in the area. They have to paint it with polka dots so that it’s never confused for a real ambulance…and the lights and siren are disabled. But she gets to drive an ambulance. They also have a working fire truck. So, she passed me her card and invited me to take a tour of her work. I WILL take up the offer!

I sidled next to Josiah as he was aligning other families for their pictures. The Langston family took their place: mom in the middle, boys on either side, twins on the ends with baby in tow. We all made noises to get Edward to look forward and a great photo was taken. Their last photo shows the now-college aged twins in middle school with their cousin. I now realize that daughter number three is not in the picture. I’ll have to figure out how she’s doing.

Then I watched Andrea’s family get aligned. Little Izak is my buddy and he was smiling so big. I helped him get aligned in front and I just felt a lot of pride in the church for caring for this family. The girls are really sweet and smart. I don’t really know much about Mom’s life.

I made a few rounds in the fellowship hall and saw another youth go into the kitchen with someone I had never met before. I stuck my head into the window and employed that rare ability I have to be both cool and old at the same time. “And who exactly are you?” I say to the new gal, who looks at me strangely. Sheena pipes up…this is So-and-So. I ask So-and-So how she knows Sheena…and an exchange begins with lots of humor and all three of us are laughing. Sheena has been a revelation, from shy and disconnected to purposeful in her life. And I was just tickled that she brought a friend to church.

My next stop was to sit and chat with Evelyn. She chided me playfully for not renewing my photograph. I began to chide her back but she turned and motioned for a fellow at the door. I knew immediately that he didn’t speak English and that Evelyn didn’t speak Spanish. She communicated her request to him through bright eyes, a sincere smile and a bending finger. He understood, picked up the baby carrier and turned it closely so that Evelyn could bless his baby. When blessing crosses age, gender, ethnicity and language…isn’t that the very definition of holy?

As I was exiting the Fellowship Hall, I found Juanita in the hallway with her son Edward and her cousin Juniper. I reminded Juanita of a text she had sent me a few months earlier. I let her know that traditionally, Easter was a great time for us to baptize Edward. While the verbal exchange was with Juanita, Juniper was holding Edward and giving enthusiastic nods on the idea of baptism. I can’t believe how often I forget just how much the church means to Juniper. Anyhow…Easter might feature a baptism as well as Holy Communion. It’ll be really, really full.

From there I retreated to the doorway, and joined Drake who was one of today’s door monitors. After the noisy, populated Fellowship Hall, the quiet isolated entryway was quite nice. Once in the chair Drake says without hesitation: “I can’t believe we have Nazis in this country. I mean…Gestapo…which is what they are.” Of course Gestapo are Nazis, so he’s not really wrong. I just listen to this man lament the state of the country. The conversation then meanders to his work in agriculture, then veers to an idea of offering Swedish pancakes. I learn what makes a pancake Swedish and exchange my experience with Preston County, WV buckwheat pancakes. It was a hearty conversation in all angles. I volunteered to relieve him of doorman duty for the rest of the morning.

As we talked, there was one faint and consistent sound. Louise has gathered the youth (Sheena, her friend and others) to play the hand chimes. An elderly white lady was teaching youth (mostly youth of color) how to play some traditional (white church) hymns on hand chimes…and the youth actually love it.

The second service ended and we greeted people as they exited. I go to check doors, lights and windows and find our Sunday school workers still cleaning up. It smelled like gingerbread. I was exhausted and made sure they knew the doors were locked and I was leaving.

4:00pm…

I return to the church for our monthly community meal. The smell of cooking chili greets me upon opening the door. I occupy the doorman’s position with Graham. We spend a lot of time just talking back and forth. It’s a light crowd again. Graham recounts a season in his life leading the youth ministry and how pizza was the key to success. I think he’s still right and wonder if we just need to reinvent that ministry.

As Graham and I were talking, the kids from the Fellowship Hall kinda burst out into the narthex with a ball. They passed it, missed catching it, fell down, laughed loudly. I just liked how easily they played…like kids just know how to do. Little Izak joined them and then kept running up to the door in front of me, squeaking out something in the happiest of toddler Spanish. I reply in English with a cheerful tone, and we are both satisfied. This went on for several rounds. Finally, a customer came to the door for the community meal. I opened to door to let them in and Izak promptly popped out the door. He looked surprised himself and then a bit shocked when I grabbed his hand. The family went in and Izak followed them.

I finally got a chance to sit down for some really good chili. A young man was escorted into the Fellowship Hall and given a seat and his own chance at the chili. Initially one of our members engaged and welcomed him. I talked to him briefly and then finally took a chair next to him. Clearly he was unhoused. We offered chili, but he is a vegetarian. We supplied him with oranges and string cheese. We talked religion and spirituality. I learned where he was sleeping. As the dinner was wrapping up and people were closing up the building, he asked me for a ride back to where he was staying. I usually do NOT give rides, but this time I obliged. On the way to the Sikh Temple, we stopped for a coffee at McDonalds. We agreed to meet the next morning so I can activate his phone. At 7:25pm, I dropped him off at the Temple, said no to several more requests and wished him well for the evening.

It was a full day.