#290 Medical Mysteries

Sometimes I think that my seminary training should've included a class on medical terminology. I spend a lot of time talking to church members about their health. I hear about chronic health conditions that they've been diagnosed with. I hear about different treatments and procedures that their doctors are recommending to alleviate their pain or sometimes simply to help with diagnosis. I hear about various ailments that land them in the hospital for a short time. But many times the words I hear go over my head. So I ask for clarification or try to look up the terms online. While that's helpful, I don't always end up with a very clear idea of what the future outlook is for these people whom I care about. Many times I wish I had a better sense of what was going on. Thankfully, I don't need to understand everything to pray for others. God knows what's happening and what's needed, even if my knowledge comes in scattered bits and pieces.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#289 Pastor Peeves

Friendly reminder: the last book of the Bible is Revelation. That's a singular word. There is no "s" in the name of that book. Please, please, please don't refer to the book as "Revelations." "Revelations" is incorrect.

Also, while the book before Proverbs is indeed Psalms (that is plural!), each individual chapter is a psalm. So you don't need to say "Psalms 23." You can (and should) refer to the twenty-third psalm as Psalm 23.

That is all.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#288 Hindsight

I've been reflecting off and on about how I and the rest of the council at the church I was serving responded to COVID-19 in 2020. Our church, like much of American society, tried a whole bunch of things that we'd never tried before. We stopped gathering for worship for a while. When we came back, we wore face masks and sat farther apart and didn't sing—at least for a couple weeks.

Looking back and having more information, I would do things differently than we did. Trying to meet for worship without singing was miserable. We quickly changed our position on that, but if we did it over again, I'm positive we would have sung together from day one. But the bigger change I would make is not asking church members to wear masks, especially children. We never fully required masks for the congregation, but we (and I in particular) encouraged them for everyone until late in the spring of 2021. I think I and we tried wearing masks out of a desire to love our neighbors and keep them from getting sick. We paid attention to guidelines from state and national agencies and to what schools and other churches in our area were doing. We wanted to keep each other safe. I hoped to set a good example. But with the benefit of hindsight and more data, I don't think the masks helped nearly as much as we hoped, and they often made our fellowship more difficult.

Now I certainly would not have told anyone they couldn't wear a mask at church, and we didn't tell anyone to come back to worshiping in person if they didn't feel comfortable. But I think it's important for me and for us to think through our past decisions. Part of leadership is taking ownership of the choices I've made and admitting when I was wrong or misguided. Even the best intentions don't always lead us the right direction. The early days of COVID-19 felt like nothing I'd ever seen before, but hopefully remembering them will better prepare me for future challenges.

Grace and peace,

BMH