Well, I began my official work as the Interim Pastor of First Christian Church of Weiner yesterday.

In my sermon I told the congregation that I was honored to be their pastor.  In fact, I had a dream several months ago which was a premonition of the day.  I dreamed that I was meeting with a congregation and saying to them that I was honored to be their pastor.  I told them this day was my dream come true.

It has been almost seven years since anyone called me their pastor.  So I shared with them some of my dreams about our little time together before they get a "real pastor."

After the service, Rice and Carlena V. took me to lunch.  Now in Weiner (population 600) you don't go to lunch at the Holiday Inn or even Arby's.  You go to the Coastal Station four miles down the road at Waldenburg (no, not all the way to Possum Grape, you stop at Waldenburg first).  Carol, the cook at the Coastal, is a member of the church, but always has to cook on Sunday mornings.  And she is some kind of cook!  I had wonderful chicken dressing and all the trimmings plus the flakiest biscuits ever made.  Great meal for $4.97.

Rice is a chancery judge for several counties in NW Arkansas.  I learned all the scoop on their four grown children, one of whom is about to have her first baby at 40.  Very nice folks.

Back at the church I used my new key to go into the church office.  After poking around a bit, I put my Bible on the floor for a pillow and took a 20 minute nap before Charles C. arrived for visitation.  Charles farms 2200 acres of rice and soybeans and is kin to practically everybody in church.

Our first visit was to John G., a 25 year old husband and father of two who runs the parts department at the International place.  John is on the verge of becoming a Christian.  I have seldom talked to an adult who was as comfortable with the idea of becoming a Christian.  While he did not make the commitment Sunday, I believe he will very soon.  And that will be a great day for this little church of 28 folks.

Next we visited Thelma H. and Margaret W. two shut-ins who live a half block from each other.  Both were very hard of hearing, so we yelled our way through conversations about their health and their favorite activities of listening to the radio and tapes for the blind.  Mrs. H. had 10 "Chicken Soup for the Soul" tapes on the end table.  Her attention span is too short for normal books for the blind.  She can never remember the characters long enough to complete the book.  Mrs. W. has earned a reputation as a fundamentalist because she will march out of the church in a huff any time a woman dares to speak from the pulpit.

After quick visits to Debbie J., 35 year old mother of two who is going back to school at Arkansas State to get her teaching degree and Lucille F. who had a mini-stroke two weeks ago, we made our way out Highway 214 to see Gilbert and Ginovie G., a Mexican family who works on Charles C.'s farm.  The G.'s speak very little English but understand just a bit more than they speak.  Fortunately, Gilbert's brother was visiting from Holly Grove and did some translating for us to speed up the conversation.  Their three children, of course, are fluent in both languages.  Both of the older children (9th grade son and 4th grade daughter) are doing very well in school and want to become physicians.  Before we left, Charles bought two dozen tamales from Ginovie.

Back at church at 4:30, the monthly meetings of the Worship Committee, Education Committee, Property Committee, and Missions Committee began.  A total of 8 people split up into the various committees to discuss their appropriate topics.

A snack supper was provided including the tamales from the Garcia's.  Afterward the General Board met and discussed recommendations from the committees.  They agreed to purchase "We Missed You Last Sunday" postcards to send to all members who were not in church.  The pull-down stairs to the attic of the church has a broken spring, but Charles and Austin B. patched it with a coat hanger.  Austin will come tomorrow and put a proper bolt in it.  They really need a paid nursery worker for the service for the three toddlers they have in the service occasionally.  After a great debate about whether that was the responsibility of the Education Committee or the Worship Committee, they agreed that they probably couldn't find anyone to take the job anyway.  The Worship Committee recommended that the church get "call forwarding" for the church phone so that Helen B. could answer it and forward any important messages to their new interim pastor.  The cost will be a $5 set up fee, then $2.50 per month.  The motion passed.

Then they discussed the details of their "yoked agreement" whereby they plan to share a pastor with Highland Drive Christian Church in Jonesboro.  They have had three joint meetings over the summer to hammer out some of the details.  With approval from both churches due soon, they may actually begin the process of looking for a full-time pastor for the yoked churches.

I was a little concerned early in the day when Bob C. told me that the average tenure of their pastors was two years and the average tenure of the interim pastors was four years!  With two churches trying to agree on the same pastor, I may be the interim until I retire!

I finally turned to the 1 1/2 hour drive home about 8:15 p.m.  After eleven hours "on the field," I felt I had a good start.  It felt good to be called "pastor" again.