Vol 6 No 23 - There's Just Something Cool About Being at Church

The church is never better than when we come together to bury one of our own.  Seeing your love and affection for Alice and Wiley Hilton was one of the most deeply moving experiences I have had in my time as your pastor.  From taking the time to greet her and her beautiful family as the arrived shortly before the service yesterday, being in unison through the singing and praying and scripture reading, to walking with her as we took Wiley to his final earthly resting place, to the loving care and conversation over the meal afterwards, you were the church in its fullest glory.  There is nothing we do that says more about who we are than how we comfort the grieving by grieving with them.

What drove this point home more than anything was looking around the sanctuary during the service, and realizing that almost all of the non-family worshipers had the church as their connection to Alice and Wiley.  I am grateful to the many ways that I am connected to so many people from my past and present, but the strongest memories and emotions come from those who have walked together with me in this life of faith.

This was reinforced to me later yesterday afternoon in visiting with a younger couple in our church, who notice that when we gather together for worship on Sundays, the pre-service time is spent greeting one another and catching up on life.  "That's cool," this lady said to me, "and what I love most about our church."  Even those who are not every week attendees notice how much richer the connections are in this community of faith; imagine how much more rich they become when we take seriously the devotion to gathering together every Sunday to worship.

What was truly the capper to this conversation was when this young lady said to me, "You know, it doesn't have to be all that every week, but there's just something about being in church that's really cool, and I can't describe it."

Amen.