Church culture
30/03/14 05:27
One of the fun things about being a pastor is getting to see all of the “behind the scenes” work that occurs at the church. Our congregation is busy enough that no one person could participate in all of the activities. There are always more things going on than meet the eye. The big events - public worship services, classes, discussion groups, fellowship groups, and the like - make the newsletter and are chronicled in annual reports and other records. You can read through the calendar on the web site to see the events. But the list of events is really only part of the story.
In many ways, yesterday was a good example. Our church office is open six days a week. We have posted office hours for every day except Saturday. Saturday is an official “day off” for our administrative colleague and pastoral staff are encouraged to focus their energies on preparation for Sunday worship. But Saturday is usually a busy day at the church - it is a good day for volunteers who work five days a week to participate in the life of the church. Saturdays are often times for wood splitting parties, firewood deliveries, work days to clean up and repair things at the church, lawn care, and a host of other activities. We have an off-again, on-again men’s fellowship group that meets on Saturdays. Yesterday was a bit busier than typical because of a funeral, but we encourage families to plan funerals around their own needs and the church is available for funerals on any day of the week.
Over night, before I arrived at the building, a volunteer had come in and folded worship bulletins and prepared the large-print bulletins for Sunday worship. Early in the day, around 8 a.m., there was a small repair project going on in the fellowship hall. A ladder was set up and tools were brought in to change the mounting of a projection screen that has seen heavy use since it was installed. I was working in the office getting information into our monthly newsletter that will be delivered to the post office and distributed electronically on Thursday. Church volunteers stopped by in the morning to pick up a mover’s dolly as they were helping move furniture out of an apartment to help a family. The phone was busy with inquiries about the afternoon funeral, including requests of directions to the church for those who had never visited, inquiries about upcoming weddings, and a helpful bit of information from a family who had a member being admitted to the hospital and needed to organize support for other family members. Before noon the kitchen was buzzing with volunteers who were preparing the lunch to be served after the funeral. Those volunteers have been really busy recently. I stopped by for a cup of coffee in the kitchen and watched as they made sandwiches, set out plates of bars and prepared the meal so that they would be free to worship during the funeral and still have a nice lunch to serve afterward. One member of the group was commenting about another member, who though nearly shut-in always prepares dessert for funeral luncheons. “I always make the same kind of bars for funerals,” the woman commented, “She always has a new recipe for each funeral.”
Worship services are fairly complex affairs at our church, so before the appointed hour there were ushers preparing the sanctuary, musicians rehearsing, pastors fiddling with their robes and checking their notes, and a lot of activity. After the service as people were watching pictures, sharing a meal, greeting the family and telling stories, more church business was being conducted. A plan was made to deliver a lift chair from one home to another to assist a church member, Sunday school teachers checked in about classroom resources and room set-up. Barriers were removed from around new concrete to allow access to the new doors for worship tomorrow. Information was exchanged about members in the hospital and under hospice care.
After the service, I made two pastoral calls and along the way stopped by my home to change my clothes and by the time I got back to the church, the building was relatively quiet, but dramatically transformed. The dishes were done and put away. The kitchen was ready for today’s activities, the projection screen in the sanctuary was taken down and stored. The bathrooms had been cleaned and the fellowship hall vacuumed. The projector in the fellowship hall was ready to share church announcements today. Classrooms were set up for church school and the mission cart and name tags were returned to the entryway for todays’ activities. The official church schedule had listed one funeral as the day’s activity, but there had been ten hours of continuous activity at the church and quite a bit more activity that occurred in other locations. Five members of the church’s paid staff had performed official functions during the day. In addition, the janitorial service had two of its employees working in the building with clean-up following the funeral.
And that was what we do on a day when our office isn’t open.
Our friend and teacher Ross Snyder had a lot of pithy statements to describe the religious lifestyle. “To be a church is to exist a culture.” He understood that a church is so much more than an institution with a schedule and a list of services. It is a complex web of relationships. People learn to trust one another and to work together for the common good. Volunteers and paid staff coordinate their efforts. People are motivated to help on a another simply because a need exists side by side with the ability to respond to the need. Genuine care develops. It is more than a dogma, a theology, or a set of beliefs. It is more than tradition and ritual. It is more than activities and events.
Some people, of course, only participate in a few events. Others only come to the church for specific services. There are lots of folks who see only part of the story of the church. But in order to be there to serve those people, a much larger story unfolds behind the scenes every day.
And then we get up the next morning and do it all over again. Church is far more than what we do. It is who we are.
In many ways, yesterday was a good example. Our church office is open six days a week. We have posted office hours for every day except Saturday. Saturday is an official “day off” for our administrative colleague and pastoral staff are encouraged to focus their energies on preparation for Sunday worship. But Saturday is usually a busy day at the church - it is a good day for volunteers who work five days a week to participate in the life of the church. Saturdays are often times for wood splitting parties, firewood deliveries, work days to clean up and repair things at the church, lawn care, and a host of other activities. We have an off-again, on-again men’s fellowship group that meets on Saturdays. Yesterday was a bit busier than typical because of a funeral, but we encourage families to plan funerals around their own needs and the church is available for funerals on any day of the week.
Over night, before I arrived at the building, a volunteer had come in and folded worship bulletins and prepared the large-print bulletins for Sunday worship. Early in the day, around 8 a.m., there was a small repair project going on in the fellowship hall. A ladder was set up and tools were brought in to change the mounting of a projection screen that has seen heavy use since it was installed. I was working in the office getting information into our monthly newsletter that will be delivered to the post office and distributed electronically on Thursday. Church volunteers stopped by in the morning to pick up a mover’s dolly as they were helping move furniture out of an apartment to help a family. The phone was busy with inquiries about the afternoon funeral, including requests of directions to the church for those who had never visited, inquiries about upcoming weddings, and a helpful bit of information from a family who had a member being admitted to the hospital and needed to organize support for other family members. Before noon the kitchen was buzzing with volunteers who were preparing the lunch to be served after the funeral. Those volunteers have been really busy recently. I stopped by for a cup of coffee in the kitchen and watched as they made sandwiches, set out plates of bars and prepared the meal so that they would be free to worship during the funeral and still have a nice lunch to serve afterward. One member of the group was commenting about another member, who though nearly shut-in always prepares dessert for funeral luncheons. “I always make the same kind of bars for funerals,” the woman commented, “She always has a new recipe for each funeral.”
Worship services are fairly complex affairs at our church, so before the appointed hour there were ushers preparing the sanctuary, musicians rehearsing, pastors fiddling with their robes and checking their notes, and a lot of activity. After the service as people were watching pictures, sharing a meal, greeting the family and telling stories, more church business was being conducted. A plan was made to deliver a lift chair from one home to another to assist a church member, Sunday school teachers checked in about classroom resources and room set-up. Barriers were removed from around new concrete to allow access to the new doors for worship tomorrow. Information was exchanged about members in the hospital and under hospice care.
After the service, I made two pastoral calls and along the way stopped by my home to change my clothes and by the time I got back to the church, the building was relatively quiet, but dramatically transformed. The dishes were done and put away. The kitchen was ready for today’s activities, the projection screen in the sanctuary was taken down and stored. The bathrooms had been cleaned and the fellowship hall vacuumed. The projector in the fellowship hall was ready to share church announcements today. Classrooms were set up for church school and the mission cart and name tags were returned to the entryway for todays’ activities. The official church schedule had listed one funeral as the day’s activity, but there had been ten hours of continuous activity at the church and quite a bit more activity that occurred in other locations. Five members of the church’s paid staff had performed official functions during the day. In addition, the janitorial service had two of its employees working in the building with clean-up following the funeral.
And that was what we do on a day when our office isn’t open.
Our friend and teacher Ross Snyder had a lot of pithy statements to describe the religious lifestyle. “To be a church is to exist a culture.” He understood that a church is so much more than an institution with a schedule and a list of services. It is a complex web of relationships. People learn to trust one another and to work together for the common good. Volunteers and paid staff coordinate their efforts. People are motivated to help on a another simply because a need exists side by side with the ability to respond to the need. Genuine care develops. It is more than a dogma, a theology, or a set of beliefs. It is more than tradition and ritual. It is more than activities and events.
Some people, of course, only participate in a few events. Others only come to the church for specific services. There are lots of folks who see only part of the story of the church. But in order to be there to serve those people, a much larger story unfolds behind the scenes every day.
And then we get up the next morning and do it all over again. Church is far more than what we do. It is who we are.