Something interesting happened after church yesterday that highlighted one of the many reasons I really like our pastor. After service, we always have "announcement time" - anyone that has something to announce that they want everyone in church to know about gets a chance to say their piece.
Usually these announcements revolve around "Hey, the youth group fundraiser items came in," or "the LWML is meeting right after service" or whatever, and we did have those kind of announcements. However, at the tail end of the announcements, a little girl in the front pew raised her hand to say her announcement. She said...something. She was pretty quiet about it, so nobody farther away than maybe 5 feet could hear her. Many adults, especially those in charge of a service or program, knowing that nobody could hear her, probably would've cut her off, or asked her to wait a second and then tell them on the way out what she had to say.
Not Pastor. He listened quietly to her announcement, and even moved a little closer to her so he could hear the whole thing. When she was done, he repeated it so that everyone could hear it, just like he would for any person who had an announcement but couldn't speak loudly enough to be heard. Again, many people (even, sadly, many pastors) would have chosen to just tell the little girl "that's a good idea" or "that's nice" and exited. But no, Pastor said that she wanted to remind everyone to wash your hands before eating, so you don't get sick, and mentioned how important the reminder was, and thanked her for reminding us.
Many people would've blown her off, or just not acknowledged her waving hand, figuring that "oh, it's a little kid, she just doesn't get it, this is for important (read: "big people") stuff." Our Pastor, though, understands and recognizes that everyone contributes "important stuff" to a church, and that everyone deserves respect, regardless of their age.
Yet another reason I really like our Pastor. I truly believe God called him to our church, and we are so blessed to have him and his family with us.
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Reading this just made my heart nearly burst from the love I felt that was present there in your church. Thank you for posting this. I wish I'd been there, but this was almost as good. I'd have given both your pastor and the little girl a big ol' hug.
ReplyDeleteYep, this is surely a great example of how God feels about every one of his children. One is of no more value than another. We're ALL priceless!
Man, I really want to come up and meet your Pastor! What an awesome guy!
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