HELLO!

It is clear to us, friends, God loves you very much. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. In imitating us, you imitated Jesus. Many believers look up to you. Word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing Jesus’ Word. The news of your faith in God is out. You’re the message! 1 Thessalonians 1 (The Message)

For one year I filled in, full time (and it counts toward my pension), at the Digby-Sandy Cove Pastoral Charge. I was one year ahead of my wife, Kim, and thus I waited to be ordained so we could go to a community together (she as the Anglican minister, me as the United Church minister). I lived in a huge manse all by myself, almost no possessions and an empty fridge, the congregation invited me out for meals almost every day.

Everyone knew I loathed driving, so one retired couple who went to Halifax every Monday morning to visit their adult children, would drop me off at AST to see Kim and then pick me up at supper time on their way back. They knew I was just beginning my ministry, so they offered up some free advice. Norman and I would argue, on every trip, about the merits of “offering praise to specific people from the pulpit” (Norman’s words). Norm was worried, he would tell me that praising person A would make person B feel over-looked. Thus, “it’s just safer to praise no one”, he would say. My counter argument was, “if we give in to the land of hurt feelings, we end up never saying anything positive about anyone.” Digby usually had an attendance around 70, Sandy Cove 15 on a good day. In one year, I was able to spread the praise around so everyone would eventually hear kind words said about them. Of course, there were some who did not want anything said about them, so they were a “one off”, offer encouragement based on the witness of person C, and then refrain from mentioning them again. It’s an approach I have used for 35 years.

It does not work for everyone. Some a) do resent it when someone else is mentioned and they are not (see land of hurt feeling), and b) some do not ever want to be mentioned by name. But for the most part, because I spread around (new and familiar names, all ages, different kind of gifts) the witnesses I call out by name, it works. And, it often lands with the effect I hoped for, people tell me they are inspired by the gifts of person D, whom I highlighted one Sunday morning. For me faith is incarnational, God comes alive in the community of faith I serve, see it, hear it, feel it, and then share same on Sunday mornings. Knowing faith can make a difference provides some comfort, but also confidence, to keep at it, to believe we can make a difference, individually and collectively.

When I was asked by my discernment committee in the 80’s to describe my call to ministry I immediately responded, “Leopold!”. If you recall the Bugs Bunny impersonation of a conductor, you can see someone without any real knowledge, skill, or appreciation of music use his awareness of the talent around him, to entertain and harness others as community.

Norman would not agree. But he appreciated me, nonetheless. And on a few Sundays, I would call out and praise his witness too. Peace, Kevin