This week Bear Creek is putting on our big Pentecost Sunday worship service. I know it’s two weeks late, but in some senses Pentecost, much like Easter, is not meant to be a day but a season! This Sunday’s service plans to be something we all need…fun! The children are singing. We’re dancing into the worship space with joyful songs as the children wave vibrant swatches of cloth, the choir is singing “Spirit” from the musical Lion King, and everyone is encouraged to wear red and come ready to embrace the spirit of Pentecost! It should be a great day! But the real question is: can we actually have fun in church? Can churches really and honestly raise our heads back and let out a belly laugh?
I was having lunch with our DS, Rev. Mark Galang (I hesitate to put Rev behind this because as soon as I do that I kind of feel the joy just ooze out of any conversation. What is it about something “religious” that takes the joy out of things in our minds?) and Mark was sharing that one of the best moves he ever made in one of his churches was to start a “fun committee”. Their job was to make every gathering in his church joyful.
Mark shared that he proposed this at a charge conference for his church, and one of his church members got up and said, “Mark, some of us are confused by what “fun” stands for? F. U. N. What does that stand for? Mark just shook his head and said “Fun! I want our church to have fun! It doesn’t stand for anything but that!”
What a great idea! Here’s something we should try. Let’s get up in front of church and ask for volunteers for our Trustee committee and then let’s ask for volunteers for our “fun” committee. Which committee is going to get more volunteers?
Why? Because fun is everything a church wants to be: engaging! Inviting, welcoming, and alive! Go to a church once and witness their fellowship time. If the kids are running around playing games, and the groups that are gathered around their coffee are laughing, I guarantee that this church is going to grow! But if they are just biding their time, looking at their watch, waiting for just that moment to slip out into their car and get out of there…I’m out of there too! A church needs to have fun! A church needs to learn how to laugh!
Every church should have a stained-glass window with Christ and the disciples with their head flung back and their bellies filled with laughter.
When I was in 7th grade I did a research paper on the most influential figure in my heart, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As I read several short biographies about him, one story continues to resonate with my heart. It was an incident in Memphis, the night before King was shot. King and his “disciples” were gathered around a hotel room. The air was thick with tension. Death threats had been a regular part of King’s journey for a while, but this night there were more than usual. As they gathered, King could sense that everyone was particularly low. And so, what did he do? He took his pillow and started a pillow fight, and for 15 minutes King and his “disciples” filled that hotel room with laughter.
Question: Wouldn’t it be cool if you went to a church where you were tempted to bring your pillow? Not so you could sleep, but because you weren’t sure if the congregation might just want to have a pillow fight?
Being a “spirit filled” church is not just being filled with holiness, it is also being filled with awe and wonder and laughter. The posture of prayer doesn’t have to be on our knees, head bowed, hands folded. The best prayer might just be head up, arms raised, and belly jiggling with laughter!
Your friend and pastor, wondering what would happen to the United Methodist church if this year’s Annual Conference started with a pillow fight, Brook
PS: It might just bring us together, Bishop Cedrick. But, just for the record, it was Mark's idea!