A Rare Visit

Living on my own and with my little townhouse tucked into a corner of a rather sizable group of other townhouses, I rarely get visitors. In fact, the only people other than my parents, grandparents, fiancee and maintenance men to be in this house were Jason and Bill on a visit from Shippensburg and a group of coworkers for the national championship game. That's not a whole lot of house guests over the course of eight months.

So you can imagine I was quite surprise when I heard a knock on my door this evening. I was just getting ready to cook dinner and still had a spatula in my hand when I opened the door. Greeting me was the pastor of the tiny church I attended Sunday.

There were only about 30-35 people in the congregation so I kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. I talked briefly with him before the service and he mentioned in passing that he'd like to give me a call and visit sometime. Well, I've visited a lot of churches since I've been here and I just didn't really feel like putting down my phone number and having another awkward conversation over the phone. But hey, what's an awkward conversation on the phone when you can have one with a stranger in your home!

I'll give him credit, he meant what he said. He showed up and we had about a 30 minute visit. He mostly asked about my background and did see my guitar leaning against the wall, which brought up how I had played in church for many years. He asked me how I was saved and I shared my story, as uneventful as it is.

He must really be trying to grow his congregation if he's making house visits. Most places will place a call or send a letter or an e-mail. Some are more personalized than others. But this was very personalized. Will I go back because he stopped in?. Probably not. Simply because the congregation was almost entirely senior citizens and I didn't see one person in my age bracket. But I did take three things from the visit.

The first was that he asked to have a word of prayer before he left. If I ever get into ministry, I'll remember that. Every visit should be centered around building relationships with God. Secondly, when praying, he asked God to find a right church for me. That was big of him. I think he knew I didn't fit in with his congregation but a Christian wants their brother contributing in a church somewhere, even if its not their own. And finally, if I ever become a pastor, I'll remember to call before popping in on someone wearing basketball shorts and holding a spatula.