September 18 '04 |
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Volume 433 |
Church Service
Ushers' Finest Moments
Ive
been a churchgoer since my folks got interested in attending First Baptist
Church, Iuka, MS, back around 1947. I remember Jack Cranford was the pastor,
but I dont recall what folks called him. Perhaps, they called him Brother
Jack. Maybe, he was Brother Cranford, and its possible he was simply,
Parson. As a five-year old, I didnt have to know what was proper
terminology and what was not. My parents were baptized by Jack Cranford,
but I cant say at what point in their respective lives they became
Christians. Neither, can I remember a single sermon or sermon topic preached
by the man that baptized my parents. However, I remember standing whenever
the congregation sang. For some reason, Heavenly Sunlight, one of
the hymns sung, has stuck with me over the years.
I doubt the church had a church staff other than the pastor and possibly
a church secretary. I know that to be the case at First Baptist Church, Pontotoc,
in 1953. James Monroe was pastor, and I remember everyone called him Brother
Monroe. I dont remember any of his sermons, either, but on many a Sunday
morning the church was filled to capacity. I heard the number 500 mentioned
a lot and was told we sometimes had 500 folks in the cramped confines of
an auditorium smaller than the present one. Strangely, our present capacity
is still around 500.
Troy Pitts was "song leader." In those days, "song leader" was a volunteer
position and often those who served were not compensated for their talent.
The "song leader," like the organist and pianist, the department directors
and teachers in Sunday School, and Training Union, were all volunteers.
Over the years, First Baptist Church has changed with respect to the number
of staff members. The church now employs a pastor, a Minister of Music, a
Minister of Evangelism and Discipleship, a Minister of Youth, and in the
summer hires a Summer Youth Worker. Additionally, the church employs two
secretaries, a custodian and a church hostess. The church organist and church
pianist are also compensated positions.
As far as I know, its not written into the constitution and bylaws
at FBC, Pontotoc, but I doubt the church will ever call a pastor who
doesnt have a seminary degree, preferably a doctorate. Likewise, a
seminary degree is desirable or required for other positions of ministry.
I am noting the educational aspect of ministry simply as an expectation that
wasnt always deemed a necessity.
Its not "Sunday School" anymore, its "Bible Study." Likewise,
"BTU" for Baptist Training Union, which everyone called Training Union, has
changed to "Discipleship Training," and whether the name change or change
of emphasis is to blame, I cant say, but something has pretty much
killed it. The demise of Training Union and Discipleship Training has left
a generation or more of Baptists who dont know what they believe, let
alone why they believe it. Ah, but I digress.
Ive observed that as churches grow and more staff members are added,
fewer volunteers are required. For example, when FBC, Pontotoc only had one
minister, the preacher, a volunteer directed the choir and lead congregational
singing. Department directors often reported attendance figures at some point
during the worship service, and various individuals in the congregation led
in prayer, mostly prior to collecting "the offering" or else voicing a prayer
of benediction at the close of the service. Customarily, the pastor prayed
"the invocation" and sometimes he prayed immediately before or after his
sermon but generally relied on others for the offertory prayer and benediction.
As I look over the typical order of worship on any given Sunday morning worship
service at FBC, Pontotoc, I note only one occasion in which persons other
than staff members have a major role of service, namely, "the offering."
Im not inferring that choir members dont contribute to the service
or discounting the role of the congregation in singing, giving, or silent
prayer, as those are important aspects of worship. But, practically the entire
service is staff-oriented.
A staff member prays the invocation; a staff member leads the choir in a
call to worship; a staff member makes announcements and welcomes visitors,
and if we had enough staff members, theyd probably handle the offering.
However, volunteer ushers are still used to pass the "offering plates" throughout
the congregation, and an usher typically voices the offertory prayer. Roughly
99 percent of the time, the usher who prays is the one who works (or ushers
from) the east door. I dont know why the prayer assignment normally
goes to the east door usher, but its become traditional.
If anyone is disgruntled with the present distribution of power with regard
to our worship services, Im not aware of it, except to note a cousin
of mine mentioned more than a year ago that our church services were dominated
by staff members. Given the fact most church members are content to come
and see, Id say they like things the way they are. Yet, I maintain,
the more individuals who actively participate in a worship service and the
more responsibility is shared by a congregation, the more one is led to believe
his or her service is important to the life of the church and the more satisfied
he or she will be with the worship experience.
The service required of an usher is relatively undemanding. Most anyone can
hand out a worship guide, greet a visitor, help someone find a seat, or pass
a collection plate. Women are exempted from ushering at FBC, Pontotoc, not
because they arent up to the task, but they are excluded due to fact
that women didnt usher in the New Testament church. But, perhaps its
believed that women cant conduct themselves with the same degree of
dignity and solemnity as their masculine counterparts. Though men arent
always successful in pulling off the task of ushering with dignity, either.
Years ago, Bobby Davis dropped an offering plate as he walked down the aisle.
It hit the aisle rolling, and Bobby made a few quick steps in order to catch
up to it. It was not Bobbys finest moment as an usher, and he didnt
look very dignified trotting straddle-legged in his recovery effort.
While serving as an usher, Ronnie Browning peered through a crack in the
doors and on multiple occasions noted our associate pastors lack of
decorum whenever a church member was praying. Ronnie claimed the associate
bowed his head but kept his eyes open and looked around the auditorium, perhaps
making notes as to whom else was doing likewise. Ronnie would have never
noticed had he not been guilty of the same. Again, it was not an ushers
finest moment.
I think the individual who best exemplifies an ushers finest moment
is Thomas Boyd, who, when asked to say the offertory prayer during the portion
of the service in which ushers gathered in the aisles and prepared to hand
out visitor-information cards, dutifully and quite solemnly offered thanks
for, "the offering we are about to receive." Unfortunately, the comment Thomas
made, when afterwards his fellow ushers teased him, disqualifies him from
the Ushers Hall Of Fame, "He asked for an offertory prayer, and by God I
gave him one."
I had usher duty last Sunday, and things went fairly smoothly until the east
door usher, Larry Ramsey, stepped forward to pray. The congregation had just
concluded singing a chorus when Larry set aside his offering plate and started
up the steps of the podium. Unfortunately, the steps are not designed for
tall guys with long feet. Larry stumbled but didnt fall. A muffled
chuckle or two arose from the congregation as Larry suppressed a smile, and
Im sure he was quite serious as he incorporated a phrase from the just-sung
chorus, asking God to lead us "step by step." If anyone in the choir was
peeking two-eyed at the time of Larrys prayer, then they caught me
biting my lip to keep from grinning.
Immediately after Larrys prayer, Mark Crenshaw and I tried to pass
two plates down the same row in the middle section of the congregation. When
I realized our mistake, I grabbed my plate back from the hands of our slightly
startled Minister of Youth, explaining, "I changed my mind." No, it wasnt
my finest moment, either.
Somehow, I figure the days of ushers are numbered. With two Sunday morning
church services, neither of which amounts to a full sanctuary, ushers are
not needed to help someone to a seat. Worship guides wont be needed
when we eventually get around to projecting everything on a big screen, and,
as for taking up collection, I imagine something like a night-deposit box
at all entrances would serve the same purpose. In the meantime, Ill
keep a watch for more "finest moments" from the ushers.
September 11,
2004 by Lamar Carter
On Saturday afternoon of 9/11, 2004, I couldn't keep my attention on the
US Open tennis match on TV and every time I looked out the window, the view
was of that "hole in the sky" where the twin towers used to be.
So I wandered out into Washington Square Park, a block away from where I
live. The Park was filled and alive with all kinds of people -- thousands
-- as it often is on a glorious late summer Saturday afternoon in New York
City. I noticed a large collection of people surrounding a chalk-marked
open circle and as I approached closer, over the heads of other people I
could see a man dressed all in black with a curious little stovepipe black
hat. It's not unusual to find performers who draw audiences in the
Park on weekends.
But then I recognized him. He had that magnetic presence that draws
attention away from anything else that might be going on around. He
was doing acrobatic things and juggling and magic such as pulling coins out
of the ears of children sitting on the edge of the chalk mark...and doing
it all in mime. I had seen him several times before. I
remembered one year his walking a rope he'd strung between trees in the Park,
and on other occasions as well. Of course, he is the famous Philippe
Petit who has mesmerized people in many places in the world,
being particularly known before 9/11 for walking a wire between the towers
of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and other places.
Just about the time the twin towers were nearing completion in 1974, he and
a team in the middle of the night managed to slip into the two buildings
with hundreds of pounds of equipment and get it to the tops of the
buildings. Despite mishap after mishap, they were able to string a
wire seven-eighths inch thick between the two buildings as early morning
approached. Then, as the rising sun lit up the towers, he stepped out
onto the wire. For almost an hour, back and forth, he walked, danced,
ran, and knelt in a salute upon the wire. As reported, "he even lay
down to rest, the city and harbor spread beneath him. Seagulls flew
under and over."
I remember seeing from my apartment window that morning what looked like
a figure moving, obviously on some kind of cable, between the towers' tops
but, given the distance I only imagined it had something to do with final
construction...until quite soon I heard differently on the news. Petit was
arrested, taken to court, where a judge sentenced him to put
on performances on a wire in parks for children.
So on my Saturday afternoon in the Park, as the crowd around him watched
in unusually --relatively-- respectful silence, it seemed a fitting, and
all seemed to understand it so, tribute he was making on this anniversary
of the towers destruction ... and in memory of the 2,700+ lives taken so
unthinkably. When he concluded his walk this day on the rope between
the tree and a lamppost, he silently slid down the tree trunk, carefully
wrapped up the rope, stashed his equipment in a shoulder bag, checked his
unicycle and prepared to leave. There was a
very respectful applause...and unasked the audience began to hold out currency
notes, dollar bills and other denominations. He silently
passed his stovepipe hat around the circle ... and the bills overflowed
it. Still without a sound from him, he packed his bag, strung it over
his shoulder, got on his unicycle, motioned for people to open the circle
so he could have a path to leave, and when we'd done so, unicycled South
out of the Park in the direction of where the towers had stood.
It was a moving experience, I guess about the most powerful salute I've seen
or heard in memory of those events of the day we here remember simply as
9/11.
(There's a beautiful children's style book that tells the story of Petit's
walk with graphics and a minimum of comment. It is by Mordicai Gerstein,
"The Man Who Walked between the Towers," Roaring Book Press, Brookfield,
Connecticut, 2003.)
The Perfect Name
By Tami Harrell
Your column about perfect names reminded me of all the trouble we had in
finding the "perfect name" for our third and last child, Benn.
Since Lewis and I had both lost our grandmothers during my pregnancy with
this child, we thought it a fitting tribute to name "it" in memory of the
two grandmothers, Jessie Hayes Bennett (mine) and Lois Jackson Maurer (his).
We tend to be "old school" about finding out the gender of a baby so we had
to have two names ready. A girl was easy
Jessie Maura Harrell. Maura
was a play on Maurer and Lewis sisters name too. But the boy
name had us stumped. I liked "Bennett" but because it was my maiden name
nothing sounded good BEHIND it. Our first choice was really good and a wonderful
tribute but alas, "Jessie Jackson" was already taken!
We finally found a name that honored both sides of the family and would be
uniquely his, Jackson Bennett Harrell.
We thought we had done well
no famous (or well known) person could possibly
have his name. That is until his first Sunday in church at FBC, Indianola.
Joy Card walked up and said, "Aw look, its little Jack Benny!"
You cant win for losing!
Bodock Beau
Signs Found In Kitchens
There is seemingly no end to the lists to help one determine if he or she
is a redneck. One of these days, I may discover that Im a redneck.
More Ways To Tell You Might Be A Redneck
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You find yourself judging a "catfish cook-out" and liking it.
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Your prenuptial agreement mentions chickens.
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You have jacked up your home to look for a dog.
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Your neighbor has ever asked to borrow a quart of beer.
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There is a belch on your answering machine greeting.
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You have rebuilt a carburetor while sitting on the commode.
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None of the tires on your van are the same size.
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Your idea of getting lucky is passing the emissions test.
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Your town put the new garbage truck in the Christmas parade.
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Your local beauty salon also fixes cars.
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Your doghouse and your living room have the same shag carpet.
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Youve ever slow danced in the Waffle House.
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Starting your car involves raising the hood.
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Your garbage man is confused about what goes and what stays.
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You whistle at women in church.
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You actually wear shoes your dog brought home.
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Youve been in a fistfight at a yard sale.
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You carry a fly swatter in the front seat of the car so you can reach the
kids in the back seat.
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You think people who have cell phones and e-mail are uppity.
Signs Found In Kitchens
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I clean house every other day. Today is the other day.
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So this isnt Home Sweet Home
Adjust.
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Ring bell for Maid Service. If no answer, do it yourself.
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I would cook dinner, but I cant find the can opener.
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My house was clean last week. Too bad you missed it.
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A clean kitchen is a sign of a wasted life.
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If you dont like my standards of cooking
lower your standards.
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Apology: Although youll find our house a mess, come in, sit down, converse.
It doesnt always look like this. Some days its even worse.
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A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen, and this kitchen is delirious.
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Martha Stewart doesnt live here.
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If we are what we eat, then Im easy, fast, and cheap.
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A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
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Help keep the kitchen clean. Eat out.
Shared by Kim Goslin
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