Life in a small town church

1. At midnight last night, a man called me on my cell. He was drunk dialing. He is a member of our church, and wanted to talk.

2. We had a little girl come to church for the first time this morning. Everytime it was time to pray, she asked that she pray for her cat that died last week. The cat was at by a coyote. She shared this in the middle of worship.

3. We had a donation of cabbage starts from a local nursery. We gave these away during worship.

4. Our previous pastor has cancer and is dying. Each week includes weekly updates on his health and well-being. Sometimes I feel he is like a ghost. Sometimes prayer requests feel like "Death Watch 2009".

5. Each fourth Sunday is a potluck at our church. This Sunday, our wife cleaned some of the tuna helper out of our cupboards. I told her she did well with her tuna. She said I should never use a woman's name as a possesive noun with the word tuna in the same sentence. I then followed her around the house, calling her my tuna queen, telling her how much I enjoyed her tuna,etc etc. She tried to be mad, but we were both laughing hysterically. She told me not to tell anyone what casserole was hers. She was ashamed she had made tuna helper for a church potluck. There is nothing wrong with tuna helper.

6.I misread the benediction passage, and corrected myself saying, "Well I messed that up". I did not feel bad about it. Everyone laughed. I like that about small town churches.

7. I try to make eye contact with people in church. This is not easy. Because after a while in church, you begin to wonder if everyone begins to think you are staring them down.

8. Even more than in other places, people have a penchant against direct communications. So, a lot of times, when people have an issue in our church they relay their concerns through other people. Or, even more often, they speak in a passive voice and indirectly about an issue. Then they hope you understand. I find this code speach difficult to decipher.

Well.....that is what is on my mind after church this sunday. What about you?