Four years ago I stood in front of my church congregation and told them the news. I was being re-assigned. I told them that even though I was entering a new pastorate I had permission to take any of them who wanted to go with me. The look on some of their faces was a mixture of fear and hurt. Some of them thought we were merging our old church with a newer church. Some thought I was leaving the Church of God. Some thought I was just leaving.

I then invited them to go with me and look at the new congregation. With no further explanation, I dropped the microphone on the floor and walked out of the building…not knowing how this would be received. As I stood in the church parking lot, I turned around to see the entire congregation standing on the lawn, sidewalk, and the church steps. Some of the ladies were on the verge of tears.

I then shouted to everyone (in a pleasant tone I assure you) and said, “Look around you. As far as you can see…Every community you drove through to get here…Everywhere you will go when you leave…this is who I am pastoring now. Will you join me?”

Everyone in attendance that day came and joined hands in a circle, as we committed ourselves to being a church for our community, and allowing me to be a pastor for the community. 

The next week a few people didn’t come back. Slowly a few slipped away here and there to find a church outside the community. But the majority of the church stayed.

Now I have a larger congregation outside of the church building than I do inside. Some of these folks are gradually coming inside. But on the outside is where things have been happening. On the steps of the church I may be praying for a prostitute one day and witnessing to a drug dealer the next. The fatherless kids call me “Daddy”, and their grandmothers introduce me as their pastor. I get called to the hospital by the elderly when they are dieing though they’ve never worshiped in our building. I get invited to kids’ birthday parties who’ve never heard me really preach. Whatever I have to offer I offer, and I ask nothing in return.

Tonight after our neighborhood Bible study, and after the church prayer meeting which followed, I was waved down by a couple from the community who have recently started attending the church. One of the elderly ladies who has taken to calling me her “pastor and buddy” had a heart attack. While we heard the sirens of the ambulance in the distance, I took her by the hand and prayed with her. She assured me she was ready to see Jesus. As we finished praying, the EMTs were walking up her steps. Her whole family felt peace as they whisked her away to the emergency room. This may be her last night. If so, it has been a privilege to be Opal’s “pastor and buddy”.

Tomorrow will be a new day, but one thing is for certain, as long as the Lord will allow, I will still be pastoring my community.

Be blessed…I know I am,

Darrell B Jr.