The Big Event

Wedding plans are underway at full speed now. I never knew it would take so much work to get an event like this together!

As you might imagine the part of the event I'm most interested in planning is the worship service ceremony. Everything else is good, but not as exciting as the service. There will be congregation hymns, a sermon, communion and lots of fun. I hope people feel that upon attending that it is a worshipful experience for them. Charlie, the pastor I work with, recently gave me a great idea for a wedding litany that I can't wait to use!

Overall, I'm totally taking the role of the laid back "groom." There are many things that I don't really care about. (I mean what is the big deal about colors of table cloths, really?) Kevin, on the other hand, is more detail and party oriented-- he likes to be involved in everything! It has been wonderful that he wants to help but as taken some getting used to as well. I'm just ready to be married and begin our lives together as an official couple.

Kevin and I are so lucky to be receiving so much help from family and friends, especially his sister-in-law Sharon who has become our wedding planner of sorts. Sharon is full of great ideas and money saving tips (my favorite) and I know is going to go way beyond the call of duty to help us make it a special day. It is hard to do so much planning from far way, as we are getting married in Georgia (Kevin's hometown), but with great help, I think we might just pull it off.

People ask me all the time, "How is the planning going?" So the latest update is that we recently had engagement pictures made. Kevin and his roommate, Bhavik and I spent a lovely afternoon on the grounds of the National Cathedral. I thought my blogging friends might want to see a few. I've attached them at the bottom of this post:

Strange Sermons

When you are an aspiring preacher like myself who is passionate about speaking, you'll take almost any opportunity you can get to preach. No opportunity is too small. No setting is too insignificant. You'll go anywhere (well, almost).

I was thinking recently about all the strange sermons I've preached over the last couple of years. Remembering each of them makes me laugh a little, wondering how I get myself into such messes sometimes.

There was the "Soul Freedom" sermon I delivered at Zebulon Baptist Church in NC in October of 2004. Their pastor was on sabbatical and in his absence a "Who are we as Baptists?" thematic sermon series was planned. I was asked to speak on this topic because of my unconventional call to ministry as a woman coming out of the Southern Baptist tradition. But even though I tried to tell my call narrative with as much clarity as possible, I left the church that day still unsure about what "soul freedom" actually means and why I had to preach a whole sermon on it. We as Baptists are strange beasts.

Then, there was the "gluttony" sermon I preached last spring at Calvary Baptist Church, DC. It came in a series on the Seven Deadly Sins during Lent. (I previously wrote about this experience in a blog). I will always remember this sermon for how difficult it was to weave together themes of scripture, relevant stories and what I felt was a proper exhortation about God's view of food to this congregation. I walked away from this experience thinking, "Wow, I just preached a whole sermon on food!"

Last summer I was asked by Tennessee CBF to be the official "young preacher" at a women's preaching conference. The Saturday event was all about affirming the gifts of women and improving one's preaching skills and techniques. I didn't have a ministry position yet and felt a bit insecure about being there with all the questions about my future, but I preached nonetheless.

This event was strange for two reasons: First, after I gave my sermon on the call on Samuel, I became a panelist by myself on how one preaches. (I was thinking, if my seminary professors could see me now!) It was the funniest experience I realized how well Duke had prepared me. There were so many little things I knew that the women in the audience looked shocked by. For example, I mentioned my love of the website textweek.com and everyone was like "Wow! We've never heard of that before!" Second, it was unusal because four of my parents' friends from the Tennessee church I grew up in came to watch. Three of them had never seen a woman preach formally. It was surreal experience, especially as these were my Sunday School teachers and leaders growing up.

Then, recently I found myself preaching a funeral sermon to a family I didn't know from the Philippines. I was asked to do this event by the funeral director at a near by funeral home. I learned the family had no ties to a minister. If this fact wasn't weird enough, there were cultural and language differences. As I spoke, I had no idea if the widow had any idea what I was saying. While her children spoke English well, she did not. I kept telling myself to keep speaking slowly and passionately because this family had wanted me to be there even if I wasn't a perfect choice for their situation. While I wondered if my pronunciation of the deceased man's name had so offended them that they weren't listening, I tried to be senstive to their needs. But overall felt pretty helpless in knowing what I could do to make the situation any better. Oh well. What a learning experience!

I hope that I continue to have opportunities to preach even if they are strange. This stories are all great material for my book one day . . .

Hotel Elizabeth

These days I feel like I've gained a new title-- part-time hotel director. Now, of course my new title comes as a volunteer responsibility, especially considering the fact that this hotel I manage is my own house!

Well, it is not exactly my house. . . . It is the house I live in, but is managed by the church through a trust fund of a deceased church member who left his whole estate to them. It is huge (especially considering the norm for housing in this area)-- three bedrooms, 2 full baths, 2 half baths, with a full basement. It is more room than one person needs for sure. So, I knew that when I agreed to live in this place, I'd want to share it with others. The DC area is a popular region to visit you know, (especially when nearly every Baptist group in America wants to have their annual meetings here this year)!

It takes a lot of work to be a proper host you know. Clean sheets, clean towels, food in the house, and things of a similar nature. (With how much I've been running around these days, it is often not the norm for me now to actually have food in the domicile, sad, but true!)

But, all in all, I'm glad to do the work because it means I get to see people that I love. Such as my friends the Smiths from my beloved first church as an student associate pastor, New Sharon United Methodist. They came to visit during North Carolina's spring break to tour the sites downtown and to see a cherry blossom or two. Their visit was a breathe of fresh air for me-- reminding me who I was and providing me encouragement to keep going strong. I think at best this is what hospitality means: it is a mutual giving and receiving from host to guest and guest back to host as well.

I also enjoyed the presence of my former roommate, Abby (who came for one of the Baptist meetings) and Lynn, a friend from my teaching days in Birmingham this past weekend. Then, on Thursday night, my best friend from college, Kristina will appear in hopes of motivating me to do some more wedding planning for the weekend. And, two groups already have reservations for weekends in May!

When I look at all the people who float in and out of my life on a monthly basis via visits, I can not be anything but blessed. Though it takes work to keep Hotel Elizabeth up and running, I'm happy to do it. So word to the wise if you want to stay anytime in the near future, BOOK EARLY!

Holy Week Was Quite the Week!

Even though I had experienced the craziness of Holy Week, while serving churches as a pastoral intern the past three years, I have to say that this year with my new responsiblities I experienced it on a whole new magnitude of activity, preparation and tiredness.

At FBC Gaithersburg, we relived the special week of Jesus' life beginning on Palm Sunday. It was quite the day of joy for us-- we waved palm branches in worship, began to dream about what life might be like when Lent was over in worship, shared a fellowship meal together led by our deacons (see how crowded the social hall was in the picture above and see how happy I was to have the support of the deacons who support this event such as Angelique-- her and I are seen to the right), and the kiddos even hunted for Easter eggs afterwards.

Our special night services began with Maundy Thursday. It was a time when we shared communion together, heard a great Latin piece from the choir and remembered the night when Jesus experienced the ultimate betrayal. For me, the special part about this worship service was serving communion. Instead of doing the Baptist standard "picnic style" where the deacons pass the plates, each member of the community came to the front where Charlie and I were standing. They took a piece of bread from my plate and dipped it into the cup.

It was a holy moment for as I had the revelation of "Wow, I'm really a pastor to these people" as I remembered more names of congregation members than I had previously. I gave as many people (if I could be 100% of remembering their names) a blessing while I served them the bread. See the photo of Lonnie, Charlie and I serving each other communion to the left.

Our Good Friday Service was especially depressing, but I believe this is exactly the point. The worship order for this night involved the three pastors doing several rounds of reader's theater with each station of the cross, singing a hymn acapella between each.

The most humorous part for me in the whole experience was trying not to laugh at my own singing. None of the congregation members knew ahead of time what we were singing and didn't have the words in front of them. Lonnie, our worship pastor was the only one with a hymn book. He assured Charlie and I that we of course knew all the words to the hymns we would sing such as "What Wondrous Love Is This?" "There Is A Fountain" and "Old Rugged Cross." I believed him, because I have been in church for most of my life. But, under the pressure (when it felt like just Lonnie and I were singing and the tone of our voices seemed to REALLY matter) I couldn't quite keep it together. If we do this service again next year, I'm totally bringing my own hymnal.

Saturday night's service was unlike anyone I'd ever been a part of. Baptists traditionally don't have Easter Vigils. But, because Lonnie's doctoral studies asked him to try a new type of worship experience for our congregation, we had one this year. (And it was awesome, in my humble opinion!)

The service probably would have been more fun if it hadn't been SO cold (what is up with it snowing the day before Easter?) We began by gathering outside of the building in the memorial garden around a fire pit. After a series of readings, we lit the Christ candle and processed into the sanctuary with the light. After a series of readings both about Old Testament imagery of light and one from Exodus about the Passover, I gave a short homily. In keeping with my tradition of occasionally busting out in song during a sermon, I used a chorus of an Andrew Peterson song to frame the storytelling I did. I was pleasantly surprised that no one gave me those "We're not doing this" blank stares when I asked them to learn the chorus and sing along with me. I felt good that Lonnie said he was impressed that I carried such an activity off.

The night concluded with a service of remembering our baptisms. Using water brought back from a church member from the Jordan River (!), each of the pastors placed the sign of the cross on congregants foreheads and asked them to remember their baptism and be thankful. The water from the Holy Land made the event especially moving for us.

Easter came and boy, I was tired and didn't know if I would make it through another big service. But, the excitement of Easter morning pulled me out of bed and to church once again. I was especially motivated by the fact that I had Easter evening OFF from church.

Thank goodness for Easter Monday (meaning the church office was closed)!