For Wilshire Baptist Church
Our church is reopening on the first Sunday of June, and to be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s not a question of safety. We’ve been cautious and deliberate in waiting until the science said it was safe, and I do believe it is safe. What I’m not sure about is my appetite for full-fledged engagement.
Of course I’ve missed being with friends and faith family and all of that. I’ve missed the quiet times of reverence and contemplation in the sanctuary. I’ve missed hearing voices raised together in song and the holy vibrations of the organ. I’ve missed fellowship with coffee and conversation, in-person Bible studies with challenging discussions, Wednesday meals with alternative studies, and Monday rehearsals with Wilshire Winds.
But I haven’t missed the “work” of doing and being church. For a number of years I’ve held a sort of ad-hoc-ex-officio position as a secretary/administrator for the deacons, and the biggest part of that is scheduling deacons for various service roles on Sunday mornings. But with the church closed for more than a year, there’s been none of that to do, and I’ve grown accustomed to not doing that and have enjoyed not doing that. I’ve also enjoyed not getting up and getting dressed and driving 10 miles to church. It’s been nice to get up at a more leisurely pace, grab a cup of coffee, and simply turn on the computer screen for church. It’s been a more sabbath-like pace, to be honest. The downside is it also has fed the lazy part of me that’s always lurking.
So, I’m counting on habit and tradition to be the counterweight to my weakest tendencies. There’s the old saying that “so-and-so is always there when the church doors open,” and before COVID I had pretty much become one of those so-and-sos. I’ve logged more years at church than I have away from church, so I’m counting on a good re-boot on that first Sunday in June to get me back to my default setting.
I’m also counting on my sense of gratitude and loyalty, because I know that while I’ve enjoyed lazy Sunday mornings doing church in a more laid-back way, our ministers and church staff have gone over and above everything they are paid to do and have been trained to do to keep us connected by creating meaningful worship experiences. That’s reason enough right there to come back when the doors are open again — to show them that their efforts were appreciated and were not in vain. We are still Wilshire in large part because of them.
And yes, I’ll be ready to resume my deacon work, but it may look different. With Zoom and Sign-Up Genius and other technologies that have been deployed during these months apart, we’ve learned some new ways to organize ourselves. It’s good when people have to step up to the plate on their own rather than being pushed or prodded.
And I hope you’ll be there too on the first Sunday in June. That’s why I titled this piece “Coming Back” and not “Going Back.” The word “going” sounds more like “leaving” and that is something we often don’t want to do and often have to do alone. But “coming” sounds like “returning” and it sounds more inclusive; it’s a plural-pronoun-verb, if there is such a thing, that says we’re doing something that’s really good and actually best when we’re doing it together.