Travel Light?

We moved. Again.

That’s been a pattern in our lives for the past number of years (I won’t say just how many), but suffice it to say, my good wife and I have learned a few things about moving as a couple and as a family called to congregational and para-church ministry. Allow me to share a couple key lessons; if you have some, send them my way and we’ll update this little submission.

First, as you are coming out of seminary and getting settled at that first call, travel light. Don’t get into buying heavy furniture. It’s great to have until you move, and the more you have the harder it is to move it from place to place. Now, don’t take that super seriously, but think through your furniture commitments with some care. You most likely will be moving some day…give that some thought.

We just made what we are hoping to be our last move, going from a lake property to a much smaller place in town…I gotta tell ya, we have way too much stuff and a lot of it is amazingly heavy.

Books are heavy. We need them for our work. We need them for refreshment and even entertainment. I once had a pastor/mentor tell me to buy my reference books in hard cover and anything close to fiction in paperback. How much nicer to buy almost all of it online and in digital form!!

Second, it's probably best not to buy a trailer. Rent one. If your parishioners know you have a trailer out back of your house or out front on the street, and that you own it, they might get the idea that you are ready and willing to travel at a moment's notice. We want to provide a little more assurance to our congregation than that, don’t we?

I always wanted my own trailer, but I resisted the temptation. Of course, each time we’ve moved I regretted having to go down to U-Haul and pay almost the cost of a used trailer just to have one of theirs for a week or so. Still, give your parishioners some peace of mind, rent don’t buy. Unless you really can get a good deal on something useful.

Third (and last for this episode), be careful about buying a house too soon into your time of service in a particular community. Check with a local realtor about market activity: does it take a year to sell a home? Is your choice of location helpful to your mission? Whatever, even if you have a lengthy stay in a particular community, buy wisely.

Let me hear some of your life’s lessons relating to the practical side of ministry.

Blessings!

Bruce Stumbo - North American Mission Ministry Associate

“Please, Be Seated?”

I did it just a couple days ago: We were moving into the closing song of the service, and I decided to sit and sing. It was fine. Not just fine, I found my closing expression through the lyrics of the song and the melody that we sang together was enhanced by not standing up, but simply sitting there, head bowed (I knew the song so didn’t need the words on the wall) and enabled by this posture to receive the encouragement of the message of the music and then the closing prayer of the service in a more meditative and, to me, more personal way.

I may be stirring up some controversy. I hope not. Not my intention. But I have what is, for me, a valid question regarding “worship posture.” I’ll start with a leading question: In order to worship while singing, do we have to stand up?

Now, I know that most worship leaders graciously give the option to remain seated by making the statement, “As you are able, please stand as we worship…” or something similar. That’s a good thing to say, especially when you (the leader) know that you have some who are not able to stand for periods of time—or, perhaps, at all. What I’m wondering is, what if I just don’t want to stand?

I’m not suggesting anything here. I really don’t have a message to bring, an axe to grind, or even a request to make…other than this: If you are a worship leader, give some thought to letting people simply sit and sing without the distractions that come from a whole group of people standing up together.

Just a little food for thought.

P.S. - The subject of this blog submission reminds me of one of my favorite (older) worship choruses:

I will stand in the congregation, and I will exalt You.

Let the children of Your salvation lift Your praises too!

Ha-lay ha-lay lu--jah!

So, you see? I’m really not against standing, at all. Honest.

Blessings!

Bruce Stumbo - North American Mission Ministry Associate