MattGlover.com

I went to an old (and I mean that in every sense of the word) Uniting Church this morning for the baptism of a friends first child. As soon as I entered the building, the average age dropped by 50 years. We had a wide choice of places to sit as only 30 or so of the 300 seats were taken. And it was freezing!

The service will never attract anyone becasue of it’s slickness or music. Calling it boring is being polite! But when it came to the ‘passing of the peace’ something happened that I’ve never seen before. Every single person that was a regula attender of the church got up from their seat and came over to welcome me and my family. Nobody stayed in their seat, even the really old folk who could barely walk.

It was a nice welcome and made the place seem a whole lot warmer. The baptism itself was nice, even if I disagreed with the theology, and my boys were then welcomed into the Sunday School like they were old friends. Yes, this is a church for the elderly, with a small band of faithful younger folk, but it is church. It is the community of God’s people and is nurturing the faith of those that care to travel with them.

The reason that we were going to a baptism at this particular church was that it has a great outreach to country students coming to Melbourne to study. This is where my wife first lived when she came to town and were she met the mother of the boy being baptised. The links with the country are strong, and so there was saddness in the air as they grappled with how to respond to the events of this week.

The train crash in Kerang would be horrible for any community, but it is esecially hard for a small country town. Everybody knows somebody who was killed or injured. One labut lady I spoke to said they she knew once person killed on the train, but her friends knew more. They carried the burden with each other and set about the task of rebuilding life for the families directly involved.

The church I visited this morning is about 250km from Kerang, maybe more, but it was hurting because Kerang was hurting. Regardless of their theology, their age, and their style, this suburban church has got one thing very right - it knows what it means to be part of the body of Christ. When one part of the communinty hurts, all parts of it should feel some pain too.

Did your church say a prayer for the Kerang victims in it’s services today? Did you?

Many probably did, but if not, do it now.