My roommate Dave and I stood at the base of Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee and looked up. If it were here in Indiana it would look like a long mountain. Compared to its companion mountains in the Chattanooga area it was just a ridge. Standing at the bottom and looking up, it looked pretty imposing. Laughing, two college roommates started climbing.

         Our fellow students were mystified as to why we climbed up that ridge. One could drive to the top. If you wanted a better view there was a choice of three real mountains, all of which the summits were accessible by car. Why would you burn a Saturday the week before finals climbing up that ridge?

         No good answer, except that it was a challenge. Dave and I got along so well because we both loved a good challenge.

         Many years ago, while I was in my 20s (back when dinosaurs ruled the earth), I was an associate pastor at a church of around 100 in a city of 50,000. We had two revivals a year and we were into the Fall revival. Our pastor had been there for 29 years and was soon going to celebrate his 30^th year as pastor of this church. He was a stern man, very little in the way of humor. He once told me that I should just focus on Youth work, I would never be a pastor because I wasn’t serious enough or polished enough. Anyway, that first night of revival, the evangelist and his wife, the pastor and his wife and Marsha and I were invited to a home for a formal dinner. Pastor always liked to impress people with his education and experience. He was telling the evangelist of the yearly revivals and VBS and AWANA and our Easter programs and Christmas programs and the like. When the pastor stopped to put some food in is mouth, the evangelist asked a question. “So, you’ve been here 29 years and you do this stuff every year?” With fake modesty, the pastor replied, “Yes, that is true.” The evangelist looked at him and said, “You don’t have 29 years experience. You have one year experience and you have done it 29 times.”

         That had a real impact on me. Not to mention being really, really funny. Pastor’s look was priceless. But he had never had a real challenge. He was perfectly happy pastoring a small church in a big town. His people were happy being a small church in a big town because they didn’t want any challenges, either. A lot of people are like that. It is a foreign concept to me. Challenge always means change, and change is something most people don’t want to deal with, not when they can be comfortable with what they have.

         I will soon be at this church for five hears. Each year has had its challenge. Not just challenges of figuring what to bring to a carry in, but real challenges that churches go years without facing. And the Yoke has stepped up and faced each challenge. People have left their comfort zones and their personal desires to meet the challenges that the church has faced. And then, when we thought we could step back from challenges for a while, 2020 hit. We thought our way of doing things ad been altered before! In 2020 we had to remake everything!

You may not understand this, but 2020 has been the most satisfying year of my 45 years of ministry. Not the most enjoyable. Not the happiest. Not the most thrilling. But I have had the great privilege of seeing people going beyond their comfort zone. All year long the attitude has been, ‘Well, let’s do this.’ And it has been done.

I can look back and see the hand of God. In 2019 Mary Earle wanted to create a web page. The Board went with it and she created a page that we could be expanded ‘if we ever needed to do so.’ In 2019 someone donated a new video camera and all the attachments ‘for if we ever want to try doing something online.’ The sound system and Power Point and all that was already in place, but it was new and we were learning. Everything was in place, including the people, to meet the challenge of 2020, even though we had no idea what was coming. And then everything hit. It seemed like every week there was something new. The challenge of services online. (It’s a shame you folks were not here to see the process early on. You would have laughed or cried, or laughed until you cried.) Then when we could go back to services in church, there were other challenges. Communion, offerings, music, social distancing, encouraging some not to come at all. One thing after another. And interwoven into all the new challenges were the ‘normal’ challenges. Illnesses (which created its own hardships amid the pandemic), deaths and all the things that hit a church family every year. Everything has changed, everything has been turned upside down, everything is different.

And 2021 looks to be more of the same. Back in April people were wondering when things were going to get back to normal. In August people were wondering if things would ever get back to normal. Now people seem to have accepted that challenge and change is what is normal. The attitude is, ‘What is next? Bring it on!’

So, Pastor, why is 2020 satisfying?

Well, I have felt proud over and over and over. I have seen people do things that they really didn’t know how to do, but still did it well. I have seen people with issues in their own personal life, often life and death issues, still rise up and serve the Lord both in the church and out of the church. I have seen people who have looked at this virus and have decided that they have to move beyond the fear and serve the Lord. And finances! Attendance is down, which, under the circumstances, is a good thing, but the people in this congregation have responded with joy to the needs of the church. One of the things about being in ministry for 45 years is that you know a lot of people in a lot of churches in a lot of places. Every church in America has been affected by this pandemic. Some churches have been crippled and some will even close. But in a very small town in Indiana the one church in that town has done quite well. They have done well because a challenge was put in front of the people and the people have just said, “We can do this!”

Personal pride, such as the aforementioned pastor had because of his education and experience, is a sin. But pride in people who step up and do the Lord’s work, I think that pride is good and justified. For five years it has been one challenge after another and for five years it has been one victory for the Lord after another. I am proud of Urbana Yoke Parish.  

        HAPPY NEW YEAR, y’all!