Pastor’s Note
Behind the scenes at Southwood….
It’s 6 o’clock do you know where your church staff is? Well, that all depends… is it a.m. or p.m.? Is it youth staff or small groups? Is it Monday or is it Sunday?
If it’s 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning there is often already fresh coffee brewed at the church and someone on campus for a Bible Study. By 6 p.m. the same day you could look across the street to the Lodge and see the stirring continue with High-Life.
I’ve come in ‘early’ before only to find myself on the heels of the facility staff already bringing about the redemption of the building. I’ve ‘snuck in’ late to make some copies only to find myself ‘startled’ by other staff members engaged in pastoral counseling or study. There is a beautiful passion among those who work vocationally at Southwood and I love having to regularly tell people, ‘GO HOME!’
You should know, however, that I am equally thrilled to see Southwood ‘behind the scenes’ in a way that is often behind what is seen. Service in the Kingdom of God is not limited to vocational or professional ministry. The phrase ‘full-time Christian service’ is an oxymoron. There is no part-time Christian service and it is exciting to be in a place where I can say that without fear!
I have bumped into several ‘non-professional’ Christians at Starbucks, out to dinner or around town who are simply living life in the culture and context where God has placed them. Those are the other ‘behind the scenes’ venues at Southwood. We must intentionally embrace the notion that life is to be lived to God’s glory in the mundane as well as the mountaintop! A true Reformed world and life view would argue that the beauty of the mundane is on par with the mountaintop.
What that means is this: there are moms who won’t make it to any Bible study in 2010; they will be late for every service and will likely not read anything all year except recipes and dosage instructions for ear infection medication. Hear me well: Those moms are engaged in FULL-TIME Christian service! That is behind what is seen at Southwood as well, not just a preparatory legwork done prior to an ecclesiastical event!
We must embrace every moment as a ‘behind the scenes’ moment in the Kingdom! I shudder to think that someone might feel talking to the stranger in line at Target is somehow less valid than talking to a villager through a translator during a mission trip! In some ways it is easier to engage the villager on the mission trip than it is to talk in line at Target or cross the street to a neighbor whose life is complicated. We must embrace all the ‘behind the scenes’ venues Huntsville has to offer: the ones at 1000 Carl T. Jones Dr. and the ones where you get your mail too!
Ken Leggett told me that Southwood has regularly referred to this concept as our church ‘gathered’ and ‘scattered’. God gathers us together at specific times and then scatters us out all over His Kingdom. In my first lesson on this terminology I asked Ken whether we were ‘smothered, covered, chunked, diced and topped’ too? He laughed. If you don’t get the joke then I’ve got an assignment for you: skip a church event and head to ‘Waffle House.’ Tell them your pastor sent you to learn the meaning of ‘smothered, covered, chunked, diced and topped’ and then have a cup of coffee while you listen. In that moment learn the server’s name, take some interest in them, find out about their life and make some mental notes. What you are learning in that moment has less to do with Waffle House’s philosophy and much more to do with Jesus’. What is actually being ‘scattered’ in that moment is you, not just the hashbrowns.
Here’s a little secret: If being ‘scattered’ like that makes you uncomfortable, me too. It usually takes a little stretching from the Spirit before the scattering happens, but when it does the church always begins to see that 6 a.m. coffee can be ‘spiritually’ enjoyed in the fellowship hall and all over Huntsville.