The Church that is Trying to Be Born

I found a paper on my desk with observations I scribbled down during church about a year ago.  The church that camp staff attend is still trying to be born, I think, but it’s definitely following a bit more of a norm today than it did a year ago.  Basically it’s attended by off duty camp staff, a family or two from an hour away who take turns coming every couple of Sundays and, since the end of last summer, a pastor and his family who moved in.  Other than that, it’s whoever randomly decides to visit that particular Sunday.  I remember scrawling these words thinking things were bound to change quickly and we’d all forget what the first days were really like when some Sundays you wondered if you’d actually get through the entire hymn.

You may attend church at Oldtown if ….

… the smell of cigarette smoke overwhelms the place halfway through the message

… you have no members, only attendees.  A few regular, mostly random

… the song leader, Sunday School teacher, and preacher may or may not show up.  You’re pretty adept at improvising.

… you never know what constituency the minister will be part of and more likely than not, you’ve never heard of him before.

… you have carry in every Sunday because people drive up to three hours to attend

… Sunday School is sometimes dead, sometimes lively, and sometimes bordering on arguing.  Iron sharpens iron, you know.

… the place you meet is dirtier than your house when you haven’t cleaned it for four weeks

… the neighbor lady who attends may walk in halfway through a song and walk up front to interrupt it so she can update us on her mom’s health needs immediately.

… there is a Maryland flag on one side of the stage and a US flag on the other, flanking a hand-painted mural of mountains, a barn, cows and sheep

… the smell of french fries lingers

… a local attendee comes for the singing then leaves to attend his own church where he prefers the preaching before returning in time for lunch

… the people collecting the offering may be less than four feet tall

… there is a lot of grace for kid’s behavior

It’s true.  Things have changed.  The neighbor lady no longer goes up front with her requests.  She does still enjoy the food and often takes four or five plates of food home with her (maybe for the week?).  One Sunday she made a second trip across the parking lot because she forgot to get food for the dog.  I’m not even kidding.

Some of the changes have been positive.  As camp grew, so did the number of off-duty staff which meant the attendance swelled enough to make the singing go better and the kids weren’t as likely to be the only one in their Sunday School class that day.  But as things became more permanent, some of the families who attended regularly to help make it a service backed off or stopped coming altogether.  The little bit of church culture that was beginning to develop shifted again and we missed the friends we’d learned to know.  In six months or a year, we’ll look back and know that it has changed once again.  Church is and should be dynamic; but it is especially so in its creation.

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