No Girls Allowed!

So, this coming Sunday is Lutheran Men in Mission Sunday at the congregation I serve.

 

Truth be told, I’m not 100% sure just what that means…but I am 100% sure that I have no idea what to expect (except that there are “no girls allowed.” How fun to serve in a congregation where the absence of female leadership in worship is unusual!)!

 

I met with the two gentlemen who will be the primary leaders for worship on Sunday, and I was reminded of something that I was told in seminary. It was something like: “Remember, you do this pastoral thing all day, almost every day…Not everybody else does. It will become natural to you…It won’t be for everyone.”

 

At their request, I met with these two remarkable, and very accomplished, men for about an hour…looking at the bulletin; figuring out what to take out and what to leave in; deciding who was going to stand or sit where, and when; what lesson(s) to preach about; what hymns to sing; etc., etc., etc. It was, in all actuality, very humbling for me. I don’t remember what Earl has retired from – something to do with TWA (someone who is reading this may be able to help me on that), but Ralph retired from an executive position with Estee Lauder – both of them are world-travelers. These are strong and wise men, who reminded me that what I do is sacred…holy…different, and not to be entered into lightly.

 

Their concern over doing the absolute best they can do for God and for the people of God, caught me up short – and convicted me of being (at least occasionally) unaware of the impact worship has on folks’ lives.

 

It also reminded me that I do not do nearly as good a job as I like to think I do of reminding folks that my ministry (or calling) as a pastor is no higher or better than anyone else’s…just different. That, in fact, their//your life-ministries (I think I just created that hyphenated word…I like it) stand a far better chance of impacting “un-churched” folks than mine does. After all, they//you spend more time “out there” than I do. It reminded me that I need to do a better job of helping folks worship with every breath they have…doing their absolute best for God and for the people of God in every moment they have.

 

I think that Ralph has decided to preach on a different gospel lesson than the one assigned – I told him that I thought it would probably still “take,” even if it is not the one assigned for this week in the lectionary.

 

But the assigned gospel reading (if anyone’s interested) is from Luke, the 18^th chapter. I didn’t really get any farther than the first verse. It says, “Jesus told them a parable about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Lord knows that we are living in times that threaten to make us loose heart…How wonderful to be reminded, by this unlikely duo of men, that God hears the prayers of all people: seminary trained and drop-outs, young and old and world-travelers and homebodies and executives and those who speak in front of people easily and those who struggle to put words together and those leading worship and those who will never set foot in a church. And how wonderful to have lips other than mine speak those prayers and model lives of intentional worship.

 

I am looking forward to being able to sit with my family in worship this coming Sunday…And I thank the Lutheran Men in Mission men for that blessing.

 

And I am eager to see how God will use these men, with and through their wisdom and their nervous concern and their determination…how God will use them to change me and to change the world.