by Nate PowellRemember when NBC used to run different public service announcements, with differing current television stars? They always used to end with the same graphic and phrase: The More You Know. They may or may not have told us something we knew, but we always felt a bit more educated when we saw that star and graphic fly across the screen. Often, someone can share a small bit of information that makes us a whole lot smarter, or (better yet) a whole lot wiser.
I’m feeling a bit that way in my new role. Sometimes a bit of info is all I need to feel a whole lot smarter. Much to the chagrin of everyone in the church, pastors are not psychic! There is a whole lot that we don’t know. We do our best to get a people and ask questions. But there are often some major pieces of information that would help us to do our job so much better. Here are a few examples of what I mean:
- Surgery & Hospital stays: We want to do our best to make sure you have someone pray with you and for you when you have a medical need. One of the best things you can do is to drop a quick phone call to the church office or a text to myself or one of the elders (our cell numbers are listed in the bulletin every week). Or ask a friend to do it if you’re not able to. We want to pray with and for you. That’s what families do: support each other! We’re also well aware of your privacy in these needs, and will only ever share prayer requests to our prayer chain with your permission.
- People needs: One of the best ways to make sure we are caring for each other is to keep an eye out for each other. When you know of another church member or person in our community that you care deeply about, let’s pray for them together and see if we can find a way to help meet that need, or display the love of Jesus to them in some tangible way.
- Email power: Often, there are things that we remember about church or hold to communicate to the pastor only on Sunday. And sometimes we hold these things right until the time of service, either before or after. One pastor I listen to talks about how a lady stopped him 2 minutes before the service to complain about a toilet that wasn’t working. An important problem to be sure, but the gruffness with which she handled the issue made it difficult for the pastor to focus on his sermon and the service at hand. So here’s a tip: During the week, drop an email to the office or to me (or to Janell) and let us respond as we can. It will also help us remember your issue better, as Sundays bring many different things to the pastor: names, tasks, decisions, calls, prayer, the sermon, etc. You can see how all of that can feel mentally overwhelming, especially if you don’t want me to forget what you talked to me about. Email is a great way to do that with non-emergency requests. As well, this is a way to use the Connect cards in the pews to your advantage. I want to spend Sundays focused on the people who are present and on preaching the word. You can help me do my job better.
Thank you for your patience as I ease into my new role. I hope that over time, we will grow in the skill of good communication, and help each other know a bit more about Jesus and about the needs around us than we did yesterday!