I was in seminary and I was looking for a vocational ministry position in a local church. I had put a resume together, I was scanning the NC Baptist newspaper, The Biblical Recorder, and promptly sending my well curated resume and cover letter. I was thrilled when I saw that a larger Baptist church in my hometown had an ad for an associate pastor, so much so that I immediately got my resume in the mail and started waiting. Eventually, I got a phone call, which led to an interview with the senior pastor. I knew of this man, he had served for many years in my hometown, but I had never met him in person. The morning of the interview I was well-prepared, I had on my “baptist pastor uniform,” and I arrived a few minutes early. I sat in my car a few minutes after I arrived in the parking spot, and just a couple of minutes before the interview time I checked my hair in the rear-view mirror, stepped out of the car, shut my door, and started walking toward the building. I turned, and the pastor, the gentleman who was to interview me, he was also walking toward the building. He quickly walked over to speak to me, with what I thought would be welcoming and hospitable words, but I got something a little different. “Are you Michael Edwards?” “Yes, you are Dr. PastorName, right?” “Yes,” he said, “and you are in my parking place.”
Sure enough, I had missed the sign that marked that parking spot as “Senior Pastor.”
We have a very busy parking lot at May Memorial. We have a very busy building. We have (almost) no rooms that sit idly throughout the week. Our building is used a lot for church functions and community activities. We have Bible Studies, ongoing mission projects (Just Kids, Medical Equipment, Blessing Box, etc.), Children’s Discipleship, Youth Discipleship, church meals, worship, and musical rehearsals, just to name a few. The Powhatan Garden Club meets in our building, as does the Powhatan Women’s Club, the girl scouts, Powhatan Fast Pitch Softball, the Coalition of Powhatan Churches, and Scottville groups, just to name a few. The Free Clinic uses our building on a regular basis, and they use our western parking lot every day. And, we have a daycare that is open sixty hours a week. Our buildings and parking lots are used a lot.
With all of this happening, I wonder, where does God want me to park? Maybe I should ask the Building and Grounds Committee to go out and get a sign, put it at the front of the closest spot to the entrance to our building, marking it as SENIOR PASTOR. I could get in the building faster, I could always know where I will be able to park when I’m turning in off of Old Buckingham Rd. And I could act put out when someone parks in said spot.
Or…
I could do something really radical, and park in a spot that is well away from the building, adding ten, twenty, maybe thirty steps to my trip from car to church. I could take the approach that I should let others have the better spot. Others in our church family. And others who are not a part of our worshiping community. I could allow them to have the better place. “Why would you do that?” I’m glad you asked. Because that is what Jesus would do.
The building, the parking lot, everything we have, it doesn’t really belong to us. We are just stewards of it. God has given all of it to us to use to make our community and world better. It is not a Country Club where “membership has its privileges.” No, it is a community in which we are called to be a blessing, in the name of Christ, to every person we encounter.
Sometimes it becomes easy to get a little grumpy and less hospitable in this living in community. It even is easy to go back to the attitude of “that’s mine.” But when we do, Jesus is always calling us back to a better way, a way that allows others to go first, to take the better seat, parking place, even when the Sr. Pastor thinks he should be able to park there.
Caveat…we have many in our church family whose mobility is limited, and for them ten extra steps is a difficult task. I am not talking about where you park in the parking lot. We love you, and we are grateful for the effort you make to be with us, because you bless us with your presence.