About a month ago I was surprised to find one of our "Welcome Visitors!" cards in the offering plate from somebody familiar. It seemed as if a Mr. Bob Marley visited our church one Sunday and (by golly!) checked the "Desire to Join the Church" box. On top of that he "Wants to Be Put On the Mailing List" and "Would Like to Talk With the Pastor." And even through, strangely enough, I couldn't remember seeing an African-American congregant in church that month, my mind raced with possibilities. Visions of reggae "Be Thou My Vision" danced in my head. I could see the bulletin:
Minister of "Maintaining the Groove" and Steel Drums: Elder Bob Marley
But then it all come crashing down to Earth quite rapidly. A quick rifle through our phone book revealed the plain fact that there was no Mr. Bob Marley (Or anybody with that name) in our township...in fact, there are no Marleys in the county. And, really, the hastily scrawled penmanship (once thought to be brought on by hallucinogens), looked an awful lot like that of a 7th Grader. Oh...yeah...and Bob Marley died in 1981. Dreams were dashed...I stopped growing dreadlocks. The dream of Presby-Rastafarian worship faded away.
Another "Welcome Visitors!" card appeared in the offering plate two Sundays ago. I have it on my desk. A Mr. P.J. Nabonzy would like to join the church. He is just as enthusiastic about joining, receiving mailings, and meeting with me. And, funniest thing, he evidently lives in the house once occupied by Mr. Marley (on the 5000 block of a street that I have yet to find), and even kept the same phone number (that, strangely enough, is a couple of re-arranged numbers from some of our other members). I want to reach him and his three kids because, frankly, I really want to know what national heritage "Nabonzy" is derived from.
I do know one thing...when he joins, he's going to love getting to know our two very creative and michevous Middle School Youth.
The ongoing journal/blog of a new pastor trying to better understand how God wants him to serve and who he is called to be, what he can do to be a better person/husband/pastor, and how to have some laughs along the way (in that order). In other words, some guy from Colorado writing about his job, his life, and what he finds interesting or funny. Riveting, I know.
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- A Pastor from Colorado, fresh out of seminary, who also happens to be a lapsed English major with an itch to write. This blog is an attempt to document (and process) and share what I'm doing and what I am up to with family and friends.
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2 comments:
That reminds me of another similar story from a couple of years ago.
I was helping out with the "Assimilation" work at our church and was flipping through the 3-inch binder which contained a page for each person that had registered at our church.
I laughed out loud when I came across the entry for "Bob Barker" since our church secretary obviously didn't realize that it was a joke.
Then I remembered what name Scott (Rev. Phillips) had used when he had visited just a few months early.
I guess what goes around, comes around . . .
Jeremy
Dude, if you ever DO get inspired to have a Presby-Rastafarian worship style, I'm so there,mon. We be jahmmin'.
Marcy
(or maybe I'll go by "Janis Joplin" next time I'm in town...)
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