Meet David. He loves cars, feeding people, and leading worship at his small church.
The gift we have to offer is the openness of this church, the welcoming of this church
Transcript:
The gift we have to offer is the openness of this church, the welcoming of this church.
David is a layperson who leads worship at Christ Episcopal Church in Jordan, New York.
It’s very lighthearted for one thing. A very relaxed church. We have a great deal of diversity here as far as income levels, work, down to sexual orientation, things like this. We have much diversity here. And everyone gets along so well.
Approximately a year ago, a little better, the priest here became ill. So I stepped up with the training I’d had with the diocesan formation program and started leading Morning Prayer for them. And now it’s almost a permanent position for me here.
One of this small church’s signature events is the Blessing of the Bikes, which has been happening for over fifteen years.
We run a very simple prayer meeting in the church, prayer service in the church. Which is unusual, to see people come in with their leather jackets on, and bandanas, et cetera. We have a very simple service. Afterwards they take a bike ride for approximately an hour, back to the church, and we feed them hamburgers, hot dogs, salads. We give them a good feast.
I think for one thing it gives maybe some unchurched people a taste of church. Maybe they’ve got some inner thoughts, maybe they have some faith that they haven’t expressed before. So I think sometimes that helps too, that people that know me from another life comes and sees me here, too. And some of the other members here, same thing. They see people that, “Oh, you go to this church?” “Oh really, you go to church, period?”
David recalls feeding neighbors at a revival in Auburn, New York.
Episcopalians can feed people. A congregation out of Syracuse, I believe it was, was going to do a tent revival at a low-income housing project in Auburn. And they wanted the cooperation of the area churches. I come back after the first meeting, I say, “One thing Episcopalians can do is feed people.” I say, “They have no lunch.” “We can feed them their lunch.” And we did, to the tune of probably 200 people. We had extra food so the low-income housing, we just started knocking on doors. Said, “There’s food out here. Come and get it.” It just showed them that somebody cared. Somebody cared and was willing to feed them.
This is what I would love to see, is just for the church to be the center of the community and be a help to everyone. Because people in need. Good old Matthew 25. You feed the poor, you visit the prisoners, you help other people.
I think the Holy Spirit already is, for one thing, and I think the Holy Spirit will continue doing something.
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