Administration, meals, practical work and worship - just an ordinary week for a student minister?

Even without all my studies to do, it has been a busy week as I have been at Decatur First United Methodist Church getting involved in their life.

  

An example of a cheese ball

  On Thursday (13th Sep) I popped in for lunch with the staff (you won't be surprised to hear that I found time in my diary for that!).  The lunch was hosted by a member of the Staff Parish Relations Committee, the body which is responsible for hiring staff and, as the name suggests, ensures good relations between the staff and the Board of Trustees.  It was a lovely lunch in a lovely house with a veranda out the back to sit on.  It was a very nice lunch and I got introduced to cheese balls.  They are basically, as the picture shows, a ball of cheese with various other things added to it suitable to dip biscuits, carrots etc into.  The one we had was a smoked cheese with bacon in and was delicious.  However, initially I did feel a bit of a fraud.  The lunch was organised in appreciation of the work the staff had done - and obviously I hadn't actually done much work at all in the week since I began my placement.  The staff and the committee though actively invited me and encouraged me to be part of this.  It was a fantastic time to get to know staff members, that I had maybe only met once or not at all, in a relaxed environment and it was also good to see the staff of the church being appreciated for the work that they do.

  My next time at Decatur First was for Sunday worship.  The previous Sunday my alarm had failed to go off (or I had forgotten to set it - I'll leave you to decide which is a more accurate re-telling) and it had been a rush to get to church on time.  So this Sunday I was determined to be up and out on time - which I accomplished.  Unfortunately, because I believed I had so much extra time I took my time walking for the bus.  This resulted in having to sprint the last bit as I saw the bus already at the bus stop!!  Thankfully I made it which meant I was able to go the 8:45 service which I was not involved in.  It is so nice, when involved in leading acts of worship, to have times to just be, to worship God without worrying about what came next - and the traditional format of the service certainly made that possible.  At 11am I walked over to our other chapel for the Come As You Are service (CAYA).  That Sunday saw the beginning of a 3 week series entitled 'Engaging the Church on homosexuality'.  It will be a difficult series, but a necessary discussion.  This first week focussed on why should the Church care?  Revd. Katy Hinman encouraged the congregation to see the Church as a place where all people can find a welcome, and are valued.  Therefore, if there are people who are excluded, the Church can not fully be what it is called to be.  She was clear that this is not about telling people what to think, but challenging us all to consider how we can hold very opposite opinions and yet still remain united as a community of faith and love.  The following two weeks will look at What does the United Methodist Church say about homosexuality, and What should the Church be doing?  The service also provided the opportunity for more food!  There are 2 other placement students and we were asked to go for lunch with anyone who wished to go and talk about the service.  There were only two people who went but it was a time when real discussion could be had and people could be free to express their views and ask questions.  I am discovering that providing safe spaces for people to respond and question are really important for discipleship.
 
  My last point to reflect upon was on the Tuesday after (18th).  After getting soaked in the rain waiting for the bus, I arrived at the church and was asked to help set up for a sale that was being held in the church's sports hall.  My job was erecting wooden stands that would hold clothes rails.  By the number I had to set up it was obviously going to be a big affair.  The scheme was that people could donate anything to do with children that they wished to sell.  Each person donating would have their items tagged with a unique code and they would get a percentage of the profits.  What is more, if they volunteered to work a shift selling during the sale (which ran for two days) they would get a larger percentage.  I thought wasn't it great that the church could be involved in a scheme which rewarded people for taking some responsibility and no doubt learning important skills, gave people a sense of worth that they weren't having to rely on benefits, while at the same time provided affordable goods for people with children.  I addition on Tuesday I was working at the computer imputing data on who was present on a given Sunday.  Every week the congregations at the services are encouraged to fill in an attendance book to say that they were present.  Not only does this help spot visitors and make contact with them, but it is also good to be able to spot if people are no longer attending so that appropriate pastoral visits can be arranged.  For a church this size it is important to have organisation in place to track this, as it would be difficult to do it otherwise.  Neither of these jobs were glamorous, and most people probably won't ever know that they have been done.  However, the role of the minister has to be to also do the smaller jobs to ensure that the pastoral life and the outreach of the church continues.  It is an important reminder that being a minister isn't all about what happens at public events - in fact that is only a part of it.

  The week has been varied and the plans for the weeks ahead mean it will continue to be so.  Hopefully through it I will gain ideas and vision for when I return to the UK for what the church could do, what it could become, and how it can continue on the journey.        

Labor Day Weekend

  I can't believe it is almost a week since the start of the long Labor Day weekend, time seems to be going too quickly.  However, as it was quite a busy weekend I thought it would be good to share some of my experiences.

  The first thing to note is the spelling of Labor - although it goes against all my inclinations and sensibilities not to include the 'u', I suppose when in Rome...

This is not us!!

  The weekend properly got under way on Saturday morning - at 4.45am to be precise when my alarm went off.  Matthew, Caroline, Caroline's brother and I set off for the long drive to Tennessee.  Now this is where the difference in culture shows.  I think a two and a half hour trip each way constitutes a long drive, but apparently to them, it is an easy drive!  We were heading for the Okoee River as we were going white water rafting.  This was also the stretch of river where they held the white water events for the 1996 Olympic Games.  White water rafting is not something that I have done before, and I was a bit nervous when I had to sign a disclaimer removing any responsibility from the company we went with in the event of my death!  However, it turned out to be a lot of fun.  There were 7 people in the boat - 6 novices and a professional 'guide'.  There were also about 8 or 10 other boats going down the course at the same time.  The route starts gently, a few small rapids, and bumping into a few rocks - the kind of thing you'd expect in a theme park (just without the safety harnesses!).  And then our guide told us we were approaching a 12ft waterfall.  The thought of going over the edge of a waterfall twice the size of me certainly got my heart beating a bit quicker. Although it was a bit of a drop, I imagine the 12ft must be down to the river bed, rather than to the river because we certainly didn't drop that far.  Our next moment of excitement came when, in the middle of some rapids, we found ourselves stuck on a rock!  We tried all sorts to free ourselves.  Our guide got us to all sit on one side; to all sit on the other side; to paddle on one side; to shift people around the boat to change the weight balance - all to no avail.  In the end the only course of action was for our guide to get in the water (thankfully we were past the worst of the rapids in that section) and push and pull the boat until we were freed - surprisingly, during all this, no-one else fell in!  The Olympic section was intense with lots of rapids coming in quick succession.  By the end of the course I was wet, tired, but at the same time quite exhilarated.

  You will also be surprised to hear that I was also quite hungry!  So on the way back we stopped at Cracker Barrel.  For those of you who are from the UK reading this and have not sampled the delight of Cracker Barrel, then please check out their website (www.crackerbarrel.com).  They say that they are there to please people with good food and an old country store.  I'm obviously not the one to comment on how authentic an expression of Americanism they are, but I would be quite happy accepting that they provide a good taste of country America.  I had their chicken and dumplings which is meant to be a signature dish, and I could certainly feel my arteries clogging up as I ate it - but it was good!

  Sunday had a completely different tone.  I went for the first time to Decatur First United Methodist Church which is where I'll be doing my church placement for the year.  It actually has two sites as it owns a chapel across the road (from where this picture is being taken).  The main church hosts the two traditional services each week (8:45am and 11am) and the old chapel holds a Come As You Are (CAYA) service each week at 11.  The people on Sunday were so welcoming, offering to take me to football (US not soccer) and baseball matches, and one older lady (who was born in Britain) inviting me round on Labor Day for burgers and a swim in her pool - sadly I wasn't able to go.  If this first day is anything to go by, it should be a wonderful experience filled with warm Christian people.  I will be interested to see how a church of this size (about 2,100 members) manages to organise itself and ensure all people are included and used.

  Finally, Monday saw me enjoy my first Labor Day holiday.  Those of you from Thatcham Methodist Church may remember Amy Spivey who was our minister for a year.  Well she, along with her husband Tim Moore and their daughter Laura-Clare now live in North Carolina and are only a couple of hours drive from Atlanta.  So they kindly drove down to see me on the Monday.  We were able to go to Decatur and see the church, we had lunch at Raging Burrito which turned out to be a fantastic Mexican restaurant in Decatur and then drove on to Candler so they could see my college.  It was just a lovely day spent catching up with old friends.

  This is a far longer post than I anticipated but it was such a lovely weekend that I wanted to share it with you all.  Now that the fun is over, the work most definitely has to begin...