Wed., Oct. 12, 2005

Whenever we go to some sort of gathering where I meet new people, I always find it amusing/interesting to gauge people's response to my vocation. Sometimes people will joke about having to watch their language (ha, ha) and occasionally I can see the person's brain going crazy trying to figure out a way to get away from me, but more often than not, people are fascinated, kind of like how one would be treated if they were from another country. If I were to say I'm from New Zealand, I can imagine the questioner saying, "Really?!?" I get the same response when I say I'm a pastor. For one thing, younger folks (can I consider myself--at 37--as young?) are not real common in the clergy. I think people expect gray hair. For another thing, the whole topic of religion and spirituality is something that people are eager to talk about whether they go to church regularly or not. I was reminded of that these last few days. Our church is putting together, for lack of a better phrase, a marketing plan and one of the things we wanted to do was ask a variety of folks simple questions like, How would you describe your faith? and What do you like about your church/What would you want from a church? I took the lazy/efficient way out and e-mailed a bunch of acquaintances these questions and I've been surprised by the e-mails I've received. I was concerned that I wouldn't get much response, but it's been a good return plus I'm getting responses from people I wouldn't have expected, especially from people I don't know real well. I can sense a real struggle in answering some of the questions that seem simple. When you think about it, though, being asked to describe your faith is not so simple.

I think part of my calling (in my own self-depracating way) is to attract certain people who have been put off by the church for one reason or another. If that is the case, I couldn't be more pleased.