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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
2000
WORK AND PRAYER
Last Sunday I slipped into the sanctuary to hear the
second half of The David Carter Symphonic Choir's concert. Along with
about 200 other people I heard Cantata No. 4 by Johann Sebastian Bach and
then in a little lighter vein a number of spirituals.
After the concert I waited to turn off lights and lock
doors. At the same time my wife was over at the Y where our church was
sponsoring a family fun night. Earlier in the afternoon both of us had
help host a reception for new members at our home. While we were hosting
the reception the church golf league was teeing off at Whiteford Valley.
As I began to turn off the lights in the church the cast
for the dinner theater production this month showed up for a rehearsal and
said they would take care to close the building.
I went home thinking it had been a busy day but a
worthwhile day. I enjoy so much seeing our building used, whether it is
our ministries or the ministry of some other group. I like the activity. I
like the way in which it helps to identify our church as an intrical part
of the community. A few weeks ago while the Toledo Youth Orchestra was
performing a concert in the sanctuary, the young adults of our church were
sponsoring an American Red Cross Blood drive in the fellowship hall of our
church. I thought to myself this is the way it should be. Lots of
activity.
Of course such increased activity requires more of
everyone. It makes more work for our cleaning volunteers and custodians.
It requires advance scheduling and flexibility in space usage and
forbearance and tolerance when items are missed placed or moved. The more
we expand the more work there is for every board, and the more work there
is the more possibility exist that we will become exhausted, frayed at the
edges, ill tempered and upset.
We have to keep before us the awareness that we are
servants. This is our calling. We must always remember that a person's
only encounter with Christ might be through the way they are greeted when
they enter our building or attend one of our programs.
So, how do we keep it together? I believe the busier we
become the more quiet we also need to become. By quiet I mean time apart,
stillness, devotions, prayer, retreat, solitude. It is very dangerous to
become more busy and not feed and nurture your inner life. You have to
take care of your spiritual well being that you might not only have the
energy but the Christian grace to serve in the name of Christ.
Stick close to Christ. Make worship a habit. Pray every
day. And, during this beautiful, beautiful season of the year when there
is nothing but reruns on television and the hours of day light last so
long, take time to sit, take time to relax, praise God just by being.
I used to think you had to choose between being busy and
being relaxed, between being and doing, a life of work or life of
solitude. You don't choose. It is not a matter of one or the other. It is
both. I am busier than I have ever been. But, I also pray more than I ever
have. The two must increase together: work and prayer, service and
solitude, activity and relaxation, ministry and play.
God, make us a ministering congregation but also a
praying congregation, make us busy but also make us still. Amen.
Dr. David W. Andersen
        
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