Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Week Two at the Church Office

It was a little busier yesterday at church -- I received three phone calls as well as a visit from the pastor, who was taking a break from his sabbatical cottage remodeling project. He is having a blast learning carpentry from a mentor-friend of his -- among other things, they are creating a meditation room, which I think is very cool -- and, he notes, just getting physical instead of spending most of his day inside his and others' heads.

Fellow Traveler and Gertie accompanied me yesterday; FT worked on the church website for awhile, but was thwarted in uploading it when we realized we didn't have the passcode to the church's wi-fi, and no one could tell us what it was or where it might be written down. (Once upon a time I could get very irritated with this sort of thing, which I'd attribute to deliberate obfuscation, but now I realize that communication breakdowns at our church are most often caused by general cluelessness. And this is especially true when it comes to technology.)

We ordered lunch from the local grocery store, where we're getting to know some of the staff even though I don't think they're quite aware that we're "church ladies" from down the street. I figure the local economy in the area surrounding our church needs every cent of outside money it can get. (Which is also why we've been patronizing this tiny store's meat counter -- where, among other things, we were able to purchase a significant whole pork loin for about $15; take that, big-box stores!)

I'm finding that it's very hard to concentrate on my take-to-work-work HTML lessons sitting in the midst of the pastor's considerable library; after a half-hearted attempt at coding an incredibly boring web page assignment, I found myself instead reading a book about the Amish,written by a German anthropologist...and a book about controlling religious communities...and a book about shamanism...well, you get the drift. Putting me in a roomful of books is like putting a diabetic in the middle of a Godiva shop and saying, "Don't eat anything."

Even though I feel like the Maytag repairman on my office day, I enjoy being at our church. It's making me feel a bit more connected to the community, even if only in terms of running down to the store for a sandwich. And I think the village appreciates the fact that the church isn't locked up during the day, like so many these days; that if someone needs to stop in, they can find a human being or two inside.

5 comments:

backrowbass said...

I've done the Maytag repairman bit in my church office too. I don't think it varies too much no matter where you are.

...after a half-hearted attempt at coding an incredibly boring web page assignment, I found myself instead reading a book about the Amish,written by a German anthropologist...

Ooh! Shiny!

(I'm the same way.)

Tom in Ontario said...

"they can find a human being or two inside" ... and a dog!

LoieJ said...

I guess I do tend to forget that many (most??) churches are quiet during the week. Not ours. It is like grand central station. Besides Tue Bible study that I attend, there is Text study, Centering prayer, Grief support group, Befrienders, Youth group and confirmation, Choir practice, bell Choir practice, AA, WELCA women coming and going, piano lessons a couple of days/week, massage 2 days/week, occassional outside groups using the building, and the staff: pastor, communication secretary, office manager/bookkeeper, parish nurse, and youth and family director. And this is a church in a town of 620 people (inside the city limits), and attendance of about 100 - 160 per Sunday. We always say that even our building is a mission to the community.

No quiet phones here.

Terri said...

sounds like a nice day.

Pom Pom said...

I like the idea of a homey church with lots of people coming in and then going out happier.