Church is work, man

Now past the monumental occasion of St. Patrick’s Day, we can get on with the rest of our work. 

That, of course, is a joke.  We did not venture to any pub, nor any other Irish-y event.  We spent the better portion of our day at church, engaged in two worship services and one business meeting.  I would say that we are holier-than-thou, but that probably goes without saying ;).

No, but really … I think I’ve been a bit amazed at how our work has shifted so dramatically to bookish, computerish things.  Coming out of work that revolved heavily around using my hands and my body, I anticipated some sort of change in what “work” would be here.  I am used to being able to quantify my work (20 dozen cookies? check! 120 cupcakes? check!), and now the only quantifying I can do is in relation to checking off how many emails I’ve sent or been sent in a day.  Additionally, our work centers around weekends now more than previously.  Saturdays and Sundays are our days on, and the days in the middle of the week are more likely to be slower and less packed.  You might be more likely to hear us say “thank goodness it’s Sunday evening!” rather than “TGIF.”

Our work, this past month and a half, has been mostly about showing up.  Showing up to worship, to meals, to meetings, to church events.  If it’s in the church bulletin, we will likely be there.  Not having a particularly church-based background (aside from Sunday mornings and maybe youth group once a week when I was younger), this is somewhat strange.  I don’t think it’s ever necessarily something we anticipated, but it is simply how the church operates. 

As I think back to the one other urban church I was a part of, I remember the unique perspective I gained – that, as many of us are not from here (London), we end up creating a sort of surrogate family for each other.  We are eager to welcome the stranger because we remember the experience ourselves of being the newcomer.  This is something that I think rural or suburban churches struggle with – again, in my experience, the more settled the community, the harder it is for an outsider to break in…especially into a faith community.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this all, but perhaps it’s a simple and quick reflection on our early work here:  we have been warmly (I would say almost HOTLY) welcomed into a place, and thrust into work that is, at its base, purely relational.  Yes, there are still budgets to balance, and duties to fill.  There are worries about the building structure and how to keep the youth in church.

But there is talking.  And, there is hope.  And our work for now is to listen, and to be instruments of that hope.  Not tangible, but as I must keep reminding myself, still meaningful.