The Tuesday Team

Tonight is the first night of what I hope will be many for "The Tuesday Team." Often people have told me about how they would love to help with The Largest Table but are working, or otherwise committed, on Wednesdays. Last week I sent out an invite for coming in on Tuesday evening and cheffing up everything for Wednesday. The response has been great! Amy Rettig, Stephanie Coplan, Martha Asseff, Courtney Klamar, and Marilyn Potts are helping tonight; and many more said they would like to participate on a future Tuesday but just couldn't make it tonight. I sensed genuine enthusiasm from many possible Tuesday Team members about the idea.

I know there will be equal enthusiasm coming from those who are our regular volunteers on Wednesdays. As The Largest Table continues to grow, so does the demand for volunteers. This extra help will make a big difference to those who come in early on Wednesday mornings. In addition to creating "The Tuesday Team," we would also like to create two different teams for Wednesdays: one for set up and serving and the other for clean-up. I am confident that with some creativity and extra team work we can face the challenges of growth!

Do you have other ideas for expanding our ability to staff The Largest Table and or to serve the city?

Celebrate!

This past weekend was one of the best weekends of my life. I was in Chicago for my D. Min. graduation and I was surrounded by my closest friends and family. I know I will cherish the experiences I had for my lifetime! And there are several reasons why.

I will cherish the laughter, the uninhibited silliness, and the meaningful conversation. It is rare when so many of the people I love are all together in one place and are able to enjoy one another so fully. The intensive time together (7 hours up and back in a van and non-stop activity throughout the weekend) was special on its own.

I will cherish the brief connection I had with my classmates. Over the past three years I have developed some friendships with colleagues who are fantastic. Unfortunately, because there are many from my program graduating from different schools, we were not all together. However, just being with some of these friends and graduating with them, made the weekend more meaningful.

I will cherish the satisfaction of completing a goal. So much of what of I do involves embracing ambiguity and being content with things being in process. I was surprised by how satisfying it felt to be able to celebrate the completion of this work, even as I know that this will surely lead to something new.

I will cherish the graduation ceremony. I was surprised by how moved I was by the graduation ceremony itself. We processed to AfriCaribe drumming, heard beautiful music from a Korean Choir and from the Chicago Theological Seminary Choir, and an inspiring address from Jose Rosa, the pastor of Primera Iglesia Congregational Church.

The weekend was great, and it reminded me of how important it is to take time to stop and celebrate the small and big moments of our lives. One of my "take-aways" from this past weekend is a commitment to more celebrations!

Treasure Garden

The east side of the church building has a new look to it. What used to be a green patch currently looks like a bunch of dirt, and with the right amount of TLC this space will soon be sprouting all sorts of vegetables!

The children of the church have planted what they are calling the "children's treasure garden" with the hopes that their produce will provide an abundance for The Largest Table and the food pantry. The kids did an awesome job of planting an assortment of great stuff. They seem pumped up about it - and they should be - this is a big endeavor and they are responsible for nearly every aspect of it. In addition, I am especially grateful for Jim Beaver who prepared the soil, and the Garretts, who helped nurture the plants from seed and who provide much needed guidance for this new project. Scott Schieber has been instrumental as well in not only getting this project going but also keeping "the farm" (as he calls it) watered during the first couple of weeks. We are learning many things as we go!

The next step is to create some sort of schedule for the garden's care. Perhaps in these early stages the kids could take turns being responsible for watering on a specific day of the week. Later, we will not only need to water but also weed and harvest. One of the things we are learning about is the constant care that is needed for steady growth.

Ephesians 4:28

The challenge of the day started with 6 yards of compost mulch. Yesterday, this large amount of compost leaf mulch was dumped on the sidewalk in front of our glass doors, and in front of (as in blocking) the ramp that leads to our essential elevator door!

The mulch was delivered so that it can be tilled into the ground in preparation for this coming Sunday when the children of the church will be planting a garden to benefit The Largest Table. Weeks ago they planted many plants from seed, which the Garretts have been kind enough to tend over the past weeks, and now all of these plants are ready to go into the ground. Jim Beaver has graciously volunteered to prepare the ground. However, our garden experts determined that in order for anything to grow we would need to not only till the ground, but also add lots of good stuff to the earth. That is how we got the mulch!

We have so much going on at the church that this big pile of mulch has provided numerous challenges today. I won't go into all of the details, but I knew we needed at least a path from the drive to the elevator door by the time anyone would arrive tomorrow.

Just as I was contemplating how we might get this done, a guest of The Largest Table showed up looking for some extra work so that he could pay for an $8 prescription. I rarely engage in this type of exchange, but my eyes lit up at the prospect of getting some immediate assistance. I was amazed that his eyes lit up, too, when I showed him the daunting pile of mulch.

Todd told me, "This is great! I love landscaping! And, this is good work for me. Ephesians 4:28,'He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands' I spent enough time doing things that weren't useful. This is just the kind of work that I like to do!" I gave him a shovel and he got to work.

We were both thrilled. Todd has his prescription. We have a pathway. And, Todd told me he would check back in the morning to see if he can finish off the job - not for money, but simply because he likes doing something useful with his hands.

Early Morning Prayers

On Sunday mornings I typically arise about 4 a.m. to engage in a routine that has come to serve me well as I prepare for preaching. This morning I thought I would sleep a little longer because today I am not the one who will be leading worship. Yet sure enough, I woke up as I typically do on Sundays - with my heart and mind full of what the day will bring. It sounded like birds and it felt like a cool Spring breeze, but I believe it was the Spirit rousing me to life well before my alarm was set to go off.

Today is Youth Sunday at St. John's. The three youth in our confirmation class have prepared every aspect of this morning's service. Our worship experience will be based on Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego who had the strength and courage to stand up to the king when asked to do something that conflicted with their beliefs. Alex, Alexis, and Brandon have spent a good deal of time with this scripture and they each have significant things to share about it. I am praying this morning that God gives them the same strength and courage we see in Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego - not only for this morning, but throughout their lifetimes.

Several years ago, when I was preparing for an important presentation, I remember sharing with a group of women from our church my hopes for the presentation, for my leadership that day, and for the group of people who would be gathered together. I certainly felt supported by these women as I shared with them, but surprisingly I felt their presence and support most powerfully while I was in the midst of the presentation itself! Afterward, each of them came and asked me how it had gone, and each of them told me that they had been praying for me.

Their prayers were palpable. I hadn't known they would be praying for me, but I could feel their prayers. I could feel God's Spirit within me. May it be so this morning for Alex, Alexis, and Brandon.

Post-Christian

The Newsweek cover story that ran during Holy Week, The Decline and Fall of Christian America, inspired me to address the term, "post-Christian" during my Easter sermon of the same title. I wasn't the only one who was stirred up by the article. Kurt Soller, of Newsweek, wrote about how so many people responded to the article that Newsweek had to disable the ability to respond because the heavy traffic on the web was making their web site unstable. His article was titled After 4,000 Comments, Taking the Pulse on Modern Christianity.


I have been increasingly concerned about the perception of Christianity in America as I have come to realize how negatively so many perceive those of us who claim the title, "Chrisitian." In part, this is why I welcomed the opportunity to dig a little further into this topic at 7:30 p.m. tonight when I will speak at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus at 93 West Weisheimer Road in Clintonville. I am a Christian pastor and I can fully see the reality of God through the person of Jesus AND I see the potential movement toward "post-Christian" a positive, rather than a negative, for America and this world.