One of the great aspects about this time when I’m not actively engaged in ministry is that I get to visit other churches. I’ve always valued the opportunity to see how people do things in different churches.
Sometimes, this drives my wife crazy because when we’re on vacation, she wants a break from church. But I’m eager to go, even though it’s mostly about worship. I must admit that it’s also about realizing that I’m stuck in my ways and appreciating the chance to break free and bring new ideas back to my congregation.
Now that I don’t have a church, it’s an odd time for me. I’m between calls and don’t know what worship will be like in my next church. But I’m hungry to gather ideas. The very first Sunday after I finished, I attended All Saints’ Day at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Rochester, Minnesota.
We at Lord of Life would have placed candles on the altar to represent the funerals we had over the past year and invited people to submit pictures of their loved ones. The congregation at Mount Olive Lutheran Church suggested that we do things a bit more involved.
One of their practices was to select key phrases from the obituary or the funeral sermon and use it to describe each person as a saint. It was a great way to personalize the reading of the list of saints and allowed people to bring to mind what made each of their loved ones and acquaintances unique and noteworthy.
They also invited people to come up and light a candle and place it in a bowl of sand. This created a large, well-lit display representing all of the loved ones people were remembering. Hardly anyone DIDN’T go up and light a candle, which also had the effect of making universal the sense that grief and loss was carried by everyone.
Another feature of being in this “in between call” time in my life, is that I have no place to immediately share this idea. And all I’m left with is the regret we didn’t think of such things while I was in my last call. It struck me that we could use our tables to create similar displays and feature candles in the future.
I hope to implement this idea and use it as an example of how important it is to reflect on how we should approach every holiday and ask ourselves what we can do differently – how can we deepen and expand our ministry. I’m deeply grateful to the folks at Mount Olive for providing me the opportunity to “grow my quiver” of ideas.
Blessings to you – wherever you are on your spiritual journey!
Steven Rye
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