another quick one, with a promise...

I am promising myself to really sit down and pound out my manifesto on this thing in the next couple of days. Right now I am waiting for my colleague to show up so that we can go to a house and pick up someone's loved one. I really need to wake up early one morning and sit down with a cup and explain myself. That won't be happening right now but I do foresee it in the future. For now let's postulate on presence...

I had a service today with a particularly good minister. Two things that he did impressed me greatly. One: he didn't use the podium or the microphone. He didn't need to! there were only about twenty people in the chapel. Not everyone would be able to step out form behind that box and just talk to the "congregation" (I still don't really know what to call a group of people at a funeral. "the grieving" doesn't work and "the crowd" seems to cold so we'll just have to keep mulling that one around for awhile. ) Two: he had presence. He had enough presence to simply express and console without PREACHING at these people. It was pretty simple really. He explained why they were there, (someone died) gave them permission to grieve, and opened a window to say good-bye. Not rocket science but he did it with tact and sincerity. What he did not do was tell them it was all going to be okay because the loved one believed in jesus and that made it all fine. He allowed them to be human and be sad. Amen.