Pastor Steve's thoughts

Tracy told me it was my turn to blog. The only thing I could think of was this story.

My neighbor had a bad experience at a local church a few weeks ago. He was helping me move some furniture and brought up the experience. It happened when he attended the funeral of a friend. From my neighbor’s perspective (I want to be clear on this…this is his side of the story) the pastor gave a long sermon that was pressuring people to take God seriously. I listened closely to my friend explain how awkward he felt. His spiritual background is in the Catholic Church and he still attends.

The pastor asked people to raise their hands if they were serious about following God. My friend had a hard time with this approach. As we talked, I gathered three things bothered him. First, the whole thing made him like a second class person. Second, he didn’t think a funeral was the right place for this stuff. Third, the service was very different from any other experience he had.

My friend wanted to know if that was typical in churches? Is that how you do things? I didn’t want to criticize another church or pastor. So I simply explained that the church he attended came from a different tradition and his experience was typical for the tradition. Secondly, I explained how I conducted funerals. I don’t do sermons at funerals because no one is there to listen to me preach a sermon. I’ll read scripture but I don’t do sermons unless the family specifically requests one and that’s rare.

In the course of our conversation, I shared with him how I had a life change in my early twenties. In 60 seconds, I explained how Jesus Christ changed my life and that Jesus was the point of everything.

I don’t think my neighbor is soured over the funeral event or with our conversation. In fact, I’m optimistic we will have another conversation. In the mean time, I should pray for him to know Jesus in a personal way.

Some of you have asked me about my relatives in Greensburg Kansas. My mother is from this area and I have (had) 25 relatives living there. Nine of my relatives homes were damaged. Six are wiped out, two are repairable, and one is up in the air.

My 82 year old aunt was bruised up from a brick hitting her in the back. The only part of her home left standing was a hall way where she stayed during the storm.

I grew up on a farm 30 miles west of Greensburg. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and cousins in this little town. It's been a shock to see the disaster. My cousin said, "It's a miracle we didn't die."