Days When "Church" Makes Sense

Today's worship was touching, emotional, and moving, and not just because of the message given by one of our United Methodist Men's group members. The men were in charge of the service today, and the man chosen to speak shared a touching story about a pastor at Memorial 20 years ago who baptized a young man who was moments away from dying from injuries from a motorcycle accident. The man speaking today was the young man's college track coach and was very moved by this pastoral action from the pastor at Memorial who did not even know the family of the young man.

While this story was emotional, I actually got choked up (unexpectedly I might add) more when a member of our congregation got up to speak for 5 minutes about this month's mission offering, which was going to an organization that helps recovering drug and alcohol addicts on the road to recovery and building (or rebuilding) their lives. He got up to speak for this cause based on personal experience, and in the midst of this shared that he had recently gotten engaged and was moving to KY. He wanted to thank members of the church for their unconditional love and support and for showing him a part of God's love. He shared that years ago, a broken man was sleeping under a bench across the street, and looked up and saw the sign for Memorial UMC, and decided to try going to church, and that that man was indeed himself. He went on to share that God helped him to turn his life around to where he is today. He teared up, said thank you again, and sat down.

Friends, that is what church is about. Both of these stories that I heard today are what ministry is about. And that is why I do what I do- for people like that, for moments like that, for "God" moments, and the times when God's love is shared in the most unexpected ways, even amidst tragedy and loss (I can't believe I'm about to say this, but thank you, CPE for training me in some of these instances!)

Oh, and happy father's day- :) Love you, Dad!