In the spotlight.

Spotlights are a funny thing. It’s intended use is to focus attention on a particular area. In illuminating that area, everything that is within that light’s beam becomes clear. Ordinarily that is a good thing. However, the spotlight also draws attention to the subject’s flaws. This morning at church, I saw both effects.

Today was designated as Ministry Spotlight. Several of the key ministries in our church were given space in the courtyard for them to put out information for potential volunteers.  After both morning services, people would have time to wander around, check out the various tables, and sign up to help out. It was up to each ministry to set-up their area and staff each table.

When I arrived this morning, the courtyard of Calvary Christian Center was packed with tables.  The sheer number of ministries being spotlighted was amazing. From M.O.P.S.+ to Royal Rangers to the Fine Arts Department, the variety of areas that people could get involved with was…well, encouraging. To me, a sign of a healthy church is one that provides a place not only for people to receive encouragement but also a place where those same people can use their talents and skills to encourage others. Standing at our booth and looking out over the courtyard, it was easy to see that most people would find a place to do both.

As Ryan Pyles, Marcus Morton, and I began to set-up our UCW area, we were excited. We had been looking for an opportunity to present Ultimate Championship Wrestling to the rest of the church. We are obviously always looking for new wrestlers, but this morning, we were looking for people who would be involved in other areas of UCW. In addition to the performers, each show requires dedicated and hard-working event staff to make it a success. Thus far, we have been blessed that we have amazing people in place (like Jesse and Jana Rodriguez) who help organize our security team and snack bar crew. But we want more people to join in and help grow the size of the show. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to find thoase people.

We got to work placing the various posters of the UCW crew, setting out one of the titles, and putting DVDs on the table. We had Cleve Lee dress as his UCW persona, Alcatraz, to draw attention. As we waited for the doors to open, signaling the end of the first service, I have to admit I let my expectations rise as I figured we would receive at least a couple of names on our sign-up sheet. Finally, the 9 am service was over, and we waited for people to come by.  And we waited..and waited.

As each person passed by, I was hoping someone would stop by and sign up. But no one did. At one point, Pastor Pat came over and suggested that we spread out because it looked like we were blocking the table. It was excellent advice, so we spread ourselves out. And still no one came.

Slightly discouraged, I took a quick glance at what the other tables were doing. They had materials on the table. So did we. Some had people dressed up in costume. So did we. They had candy on their table. We…did not. Getting desperate, I snagged the candy dish from the main Reality Student Ministry table (there was no one standing there anyway), in a vain attempt to draw people over to our table. It worked! People came over to grab some free candy…and that was it. By the end of morning, we did not have a single person sign up.

Now, I fully admit the UCW is a niche ministry. And the concept of a pro-wrestling style ministry is a difficult one grasp. Heck, I mentioned UCW to a co-worker at lunch on Friday and was given that odd stare you get when the other person is debating on ending the conversation right there. But I would at least expect people to stop and ask questions. (Which, in the interest of full disclosure, a couple did). What was annoying was looking down the row of tables that made up Sidewalk Sunday School, Reality Kids (elementary-age children), Reality 678 (Junior High), Reality 912 (High School) and the C5 (college and career), there was only one signature on one sheet. And that’s pathetic.

Pastor C, our lead pastor, spoke just last Sunday night about the church congregation needing to take a more active role in what the church offers. There is an old adage, that “20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work”.  This morning, the other 80 percent had a chance to step up. From where we were standing, they instead decided to just continue to take real estate on the pew, contributing less than the wood and cloth it takes to make those pews.

As a disclaimer, I have to admit that I did not go to every single table and look at the number of sign-ups. It is possible that some of the other ministries had sheets filled with signatures. However, the one table that seemed to be the busiest was the one that was selling baked goods. (I guess the one area that some people wanted to be sure and serve was their stomach.) I must admit, seeing as that table also had a sign-up sheet, I am curious if they also had quite a few people sign-up.

In the end, only analyzing others actions (as annoying as they may be) isn’t as effective as analyzing our own. As I look back on this morning, I am going have to look at the actions we in UCW took and what we can do to improve next time. Perhaps we needed something more eye-catching. Maybe someone drawing people’s attention over to our booth. Maybe I should have Jenn bake pies and sell them.  (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) In any case, I hope the next time the spotlight shines, the opportunities sparkle brighter than the flaws.

From the Inside Out

Our normal Sunday consists of heading to Calvary Christian Center, or as my cousin, Paul, has deemed it, Triple C. I have gone to that church ever since my family moved to Yuba City when I was in 6th grade. It has been one of the most stable aspects of my generally unstable life. About a year or so after we moved to Yuba City, Pastor Ciociola (or as he is more commonly called,Pastor C) became the senior pastor of the church. As a kid, I wish I could say I hung on his every word and felt his speaking was amazing. But this is a blog post and not a job interview, so I need to be completely honest: I rarely paid attention. 

Pastor C and his wife, Dona

 

There was always much more interesting stuff going on. Whether it was trying to pass notes to someone or doodling on the back of a tithe envelope, church service in junior high and high school was something that  had to happened before I could go hang out with my friends. It wasn’t until after I graduated high school that I started genuinely caring about the belief system that so dominated my life. 

One key aspect of that was beginning to take notes on the sermon that was being preached. What I discovered was that Pastor C is an excellent speaker. (Amazing what paying attention will teach you, huh?) Even if I don’t always agree with what he is saying (which only happens when it comes to politics), his thoughts are always well-crafted. There are very few pastors I admire more than he. As such, I’d like to spend some time thinking through his message from this morning and how to apply it to my life. 

The title of his sermon was “The Salt Covenant”. His thesis was that as God’s people, we need to live a life of purity, or “salt of the Earth.”  This was an interesting topic. As Pastor C was speaking, the one thing that kept be hitting me was how reluctant I tend to be about being proud of my faith. That doesn’t mean I am ashamed of being a Christian. But when it comes to describing what Jesus means to me, I become extremely self-conscious. When I was typing out the blog intro, the section that presented me with the most difficulty was the idea of using Sundays to talk about what I believe. As I was typing out each word, I kept wanting to delete
certain phrases. And I hated that. 

I spent some time this afternoon thinking and praying about what it was that made me so reluctant. I realized it stemmed from two main sources: one from outside of Christianity and the other from within. Each time I try to write anything about Jesus, a voice from one of those two camps echoes in head. 

One thing I love is hearing other people’s opinions. Even though it’s the wasteland of Internet, I enjoy reading the comments page of any article I am reading. When I was promoted to a position at work that did not require me to be on the phone, I quickly brought in a radio and headphones so I could listen to talk radio. As time went on, and my work position (and political beliefs) changed again, I turned to the dregs of the web, message boards, for opinionated discourse. Eventually I purchased a phone that could handle a media form that was relatively new at the time: podcasts. Quickly I was exposed to a range of thoughts were as varied as a comments section but a thousand times more articulate. As I listened to each one, I learned that some people who did not care for Christians did so not because of theology. Rather they had a block based on the way they had been treated by others who called themselves Christians. 

This may seem like a well-known concept, but for me it was a revelation. It’s similar to how you hear the same lecture from your parents but it never sinks in until you hear from someone else. As I listened to the things they said about how they have been treated, I became ashamed.  Slowly, I began to want hide myself away. 

As I said earlier, my reluctance did not only originate from what I was hearing. Growing up, our youth group went through an “extreme” phase. There was leadership in place that put an emphasis on what they called “living the life.” Despite having good intentions, there was a limited Biblical foundation being taught in addition all the other going-ons.  What ended up happening was people were judged more by the “spiritual works” they were able to do rather than being judged as an individual. Acting spiritual became the cool thing to do. Kids in the youth group began treating the gifts of the Spirit the same way a suburban kid does with their piercings: as a method of calling attention to themselves. Watching all of these kids and their adult leadership treat God like He was magic rapidly turned me off to being vocal about my faith. 

Listening to Pastor’s sermon today, I realized that, like most things in Christianity, there is a balance. It is possible to live a life that personifies what it is I believe and not be so extreme as to turn off those around me. What it requires is a commitment to three things: Love like Him. Live like Him. Lead like Him. Those three things were the basis of Pastor’s sermon tonight. Each point felt like confirmation of what I was praying about earlier this afternoon. It’s funny the way God works sometimes. Which is something I would not have felt comfortable writing yesterday.