one of "them" days

Today was one of those Sundays when you wish you were a parishioner and could find an excuse to stay home.

It's summer -- attendance is down. That's normal.

We're taking a special offering with kids from Jr. Church helping. Miscommunication causes pastor's wife and taped music to play at same time. Pastor's wife abruptly ends with a little flourish and sits quietly.

Normal flow of service is changed because of offering. Choir members don't know when to file up so they sit in congregation and sing. The risers are empty.

Person singing special couldn't do it. Pastor and wife step up to fill in. Pastor's wife can't remember what song it is so she can play intro (they don't have their music book because they weren't planning to sing). It's in the hymnal, but because she can't remember what they hurriedly decided downstairs in the study, she can't look it up. So she sits. Pastor stands beside piano, and in his words of intro, announces the name of the song. She wings it from memory, with a quick prayer to the Lord for help remembering the chords.

Visitors are present.

Pastor's wife forgot to put frozen chicken on counter to thaw. Sunday dinner is late.

It's not a day to remember in the annals of pastoral history. But we did it. Some Sundays, you just hang on and check off. Not in a spiritual sense of course. But in the ebb and flow of ministry, not every Sunday can be a bell-ringer (if we had a bell, it probably wouldn't have rung either!)

The Land of the Free

Celebrating God and country is the responsibility of the church. The roots of our nation's freedom are so entwined in devotion to God that it is impossible for true patriots to separate them.

As pastoral families, we set the tone for citizenship. Let your church be known as the place to be on July 4th Sunday. Plan a few special items for the service or prepare a choral/dramatic presentation. When we lose the freedom to be patriots, we lose the freedom to worship. Let's be ambassadors of both! God bless America.

Let's Gather at the Campground

Church camp is a wonderful institution. A little out of date, probably, but hey, so is camping in general. In fact, the more primitive way of living is in vogue in some circles. My in-laws live in a place where there are lots of get-back-to nature people. They like to have compost piles and hang their laundry on the line, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with these things at all. They prefer a simpler life in some ways. So, if it's all right for them as a lifestyle, I guess it's all right for us for a week.

I have to admit the thing I find most difficult is being without my own bathroom (and I miss my tub for a long soak at night.) Yet, there are some great spiritual and social experiences one can only have on a campground. We'll survive the heat, the bugs, the mud, the steamy shower rooms. We'll arrive home with stained clothes and lots of wet towels. And we'll make plans for next year. Because as long as there's a campground and folks who want to gather there, that's where I plan to be!

Buoys and Ministry

A buoy is a brightly-colored floatation device that marks dangerous places in a body of water.


Buoys upon a choppy sea
You and I are called to be.

Bouncing up, not going down
Keeping faith in higher ground.

Made of stuff that cannot sink
To haven's peace ourselves a link.

By our colors showing true
the Light that shines, the Life that's new.

Patriots in the Churchyard

From moss-covered beds, they speak to us. Beside them, tiny flags wave gently in silent salute. They're gone from us in body, but their mighty spirit battles on. We owe them our freedoms -- not just the right to speak, and to print, but to assemble, to worship. There would be no Sunday service this week without their sacrifice. Thank God for them. Thank God for America. How blessed we are.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus Who......took upon him the form of a servant......." (so as to assume the guise of a servant [slave]) (Philippians 2:5-7)


If I have my facts right, the above verse refers to Jesus girding himself with a servant's towel. He "took upon" himself the actual role and garment of a servant. And we are called to do the same. Paul says to "let this mind be in you" or to "let this same attitude and purpose and humble mind be in you" (Amplified)

Sometimes we are surprised when we are expected to serve. But isn't that a servant's role? Should we who have pledged to serve our husbands, families, and congregations be amazed when we are called to follow through? Society tells us that serving is groveling; Jesus teaches that serving is greatness. He served -- with joy and a willing heart.

"Lord, make me like Jesus."

What to believe

I cringe inwardly when I hear someone demean a preacher or his wife. For one thing, it's against Scripture because God wants us to honor those in spiritual leadership. For another, it flies in the face of Paul's teaching about the body of Christ.

Pastors and their wives are gifted people - but God threw in the element of variety: they are all gifted differently. Each will have ministry priorities that will come to the forefront during their pastorate at a given place. God has created it this way so that different areas of church life and administration will be addressed as time goes by. Our likes and dislikes don't really matter because preachers and their wives answer to God, not their fellow preachers or their congregations. Granted, there may be some times when, sadly, a pastor may really fail his church in some way. God has provided for these situations to be addressed in a biblical way, but I'm not speaking of these BIG failures but of more miniscule areas of misunderstanding.

I hope you adopt my attitude, and pay little attention to the criticisms you hear about other colleagues in ministry. God does not want us listening to gossip or slander. And, of course, you know that the person relaying the information sees the news from his or her own spiritual, emotional, and historical viewpoint. All these variables may color one's perception.

So, the old adage bears much truth -- "Believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see." The church of Jesus Christ would be so much more effective if we followed this sage advice, don't you agree?