Visiting His Home Church

After David’s resignation, we paused to consider where we were in the process. While we very much liked the candidate (let’s call him Rick) under discussion, we had not yet visited his church. Since I had seen him only once, and the alternate committee member (now a regular member) had not seen him at all, we decided that the two of us would go to visit pastor Rick’s church.

We told brother Rick the Sunday we would be arriving and got there a few minutes before the worship service. As per our custom, my partner went in first while I remained in the car. After a few minutes I went in and sat in another part of the sanctuary. When Rick arrived at the church a few years ago, there were three people present his first Sunday. Attendance had risen to in the fifties, although the Sunday we arrived there were in the forties. We were confused at first because the state WMU president was present and gave a report, followed by a NAMB resort missionary who gave a report on their work at an area lake.

An odd moment occurred after brother Rick began preaching because the WMU president stood up and said loudly (and I might add, somewhat proudly) “Brother Rick, I forgot to mention during my report that the WMU raised $2 million for Lottie Moon this last Christmas!!!” If Rick was aggravated at being interrupted, he didn’t let it show. He simply paused a moment and then said “Well I have no idea who this Lottie Moon lady is, but she certainly is rolling in the dough.”

Following the service, my partner and I hurriedly departed and quickly went out into my car to leave. As we stated pulling out of the parking lot, I kid you not, the WMU president came streaking out of the church, racing toward us holding aloft two bags full of WMU swag that she wanted everyone in the service to receive. I briefly considered flooring it, but didn’t want to create a larger scene. So I slowed down and rolled down my window as the older (and surprisingly spry) state WMU president breathlessly gave us our bags of samples.


We then drove down to the Presbyterian church and waited for pastor Rick to call us. He did several minutes later and I asked him where we could take he and his family out to eat. After consulting with his family, he said “Y’know, we could really use some McDonald’s right about now.” (When I turned in the meal receipts later to our Finance Chairman, I made sure he understood that Mickey D’s was the candidate’s idea.)

After getting the meal, we took it back to their parsonage and had a conversation that ran another 5 hours or so. It was a good conversation and only served to reinforce the strong feelings that the committee and the candidate were developing for one another.


Late in the evening, after we had talked a great deal, Rick’s wonderful wife started off a question with the following statement. “I may get my husband in trouble, but there’s a question that I just have to ask…” She then paused for a moment as she put the right words together.

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